Evaluation of Property Right in Metaverse Land Purchases in terms of Islamic Law Cover Image

Metaverse Arsa Alımlarında Mülkiyet Hakkının İslâm Hukuku Açısından Değerlendirilmesi
Evaluation of Property Right in Metaverse Land Purchases in terms of Islamic Law

Author(s): Nurten Zeliha Şahin
Subject(s): Civil Law, Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Sharia Law
Published by: Anadolu İlahiyat Akademisi
Keywords: Islamic Law; Metaverse; Crypto Assets; Property; End-User License Agreement;

Summary/Abstract: Human beings constantly want to increase the value of their assets. Investing in real estate is seen as one of the most profitable investments in increasing the value of assets today. Land purchases in the metaverse have taken their place among the investments in demand in this sense. Land purchases in the virtual universe have brought questions that need to be answered legally. It can be said that it is essential to protect the right of the investor/user, especially since these plots are in the metaverse and that the entrance to this universe is dependent on the approval of the user agreement, and how these agreements define the ownership on these plots. In Islamic law, the delivery of the place of contract is one of the contract’ validity conditions. This surrender is defined as the right of full disposal over the place of the contract. The fact that the full right of disposition on the lands in the meta universe is dependent on the platform’s user agreement brings forward the questions that need to be answered about the nature of the transfer of ownership. On the other hand, for something to be legally the subject of property, it must be defined as a property. The consensus element in accepting something as property in Islamic law is that a value attribution is included in the social presupposition. For this, it is necessary to determine what the value attributed to the purchase and sale of the purchased land in the meta universe means in economic terms in the real world. In addition, in Islamic law, the location of the contract to be free from all kinds of uncertainty is one of the conditions that must be observed in order not to be deceived and deceived. For this reason, it can be thought that this uncertainty can be eliminated, at least for the buyer, by knowing the content of the user contracts to which the lands purchased with large sums are bound. For this reason, for these evaluations to be based on concrete data, the contract containing the terms of use of Sandbox, one of the prominent platforms in the purchase and sale of land in the meta universe, was taken as a basis. In this context, the limitations on the right of disposition determined by the user contracts on these lands have been evaluated within the framework of the principles that Islamic law takes as a basis for something to be the subject of a contract.

  • Issue Year: 2023
  • Issue No: 48
  • Page Range: 239-254
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Turkish