중앙은행디지털화폐(CBDC)의 국제사법적 쟁점 - 화폐의 준거법에 관한 개관과 CBDC의 준거법에 관한 시론적 고찰을 중심으로 -

The phenomenon of digitalisation of money - so-called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) - has recently attracted international attention, coupled with the dematerialisation and electronisation of securities certificates. On June 28, 2023, the European Union attracted global interests by announcing the proposal of Regulation on the Establishment of the Digital Euro, the European version of a retail CBDC, as part of its Digital Euro Package. While some countries, such as the Bahamas and Jamaica, have already officially introduced CBDCs, others, including China, are conducting large-scale pilot projects in the real economy. In Korea as well, from April 2025, “Project Han-gang” experimentally introduced deposit tokens similar to CBDCs for general users, signifying the tangible emergence of CBDCs in daily life.
Despite widespread interests and substantial legal preparation for CBDCs, in-depth discourse on the private international law (PIL) implications of CBDCs remains insufficient at both the international and domestic levels. In Korea’s PIL Act, there are no special provisions for money or CBDCs. Internationally, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) has prepared to study the PIL aspects of CBDCs since 2023, building upon the 2022 CODIFI meeting; an expert group commenced discussions in 2024 and plans to publish a more concrete report by the end of 2025. Accordingly, international discussions on the PIL issues of CBDCs are still at a preliminary stage, with the HCCH leading efforts to identify related issues.
Against this backdrop, this paper provides an exploratory analysis of how the concepts and characteristics of CBDCs alter or diverge from traditional discussions on money within private international law, and seeks to identify suitable connecting factors. To this end, the paper first sets out the concept and types of CBDCs alongside traditional notions of money and currency (Section Ⅱ). Next, as the core part of this paper, it reviews the general principles of private international law applicable to money, proposes focal issues for the private international law analysis of CBDCs, examines the expansion of the lex monetae in relation to CBDC conflict-of-laws questions, and explores appropriate connecting factors with respect to contractual, non-contractual, and proprietary relationships (Section Ⅲ).
As an initial exploratory study, this paper does not attempt to provide detailed conclusions. However, it confirms the expanding role of the lex monetae in the context of CBDCs and suggests that Principle 5 of the UNIDROIT Digital Asset Principles remains applicable to the proprietary aspects of CBDCs. Furthermore, in the case where the forum is Korea, most issues regarding non-contractual claims can be resolved through subsidiary connecting factors. In the future, more concrete and nuanced private international law discussions on CBDCs should follow, in step with the ongoing work of the HCCH.