Financial regulators around the world are looking to tighten their control over crypto markets, especially after a turbulent year for digital asset prices and marketplaces. Although regulators can tell crypto companies and even investors how to behave, they don’t actually make the laws that could inform their regulations.

To address this shortfall, the U.K. government has entrusted an independent body made up of high court judges, lawyers and law professors to study the crypto space and recommend ways to govern it.

The Law Commission for England and Wales, funded by the U.K. Ministry of Justice, is running multiple projects focused on the crypto space to determine the best ways to treat Web3 developments like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and digital assets under new or existing laws.

A Law Commission project completed last November found the existing law of contract in England and Wales can be applied to smart contracts that underlie crypto transactions. It is also working on a conflict of laws project, exploring how to determine which courts should handle digital asset disputes because of their global nature. Recently, the body published a paper for consultation on its view that crypto should be treated as personal property to make it easier for investors to recover losses if they have their funds stolen or lost.