Bermuda digital assets lawyer Bourn Collier announced the “Bermuda Declaration on Sovereign Agents” at Maryland Blockchain Week 2026 on Monday – an instrument he describes as the first through which autonomous artificial intelligence agents can themselves seek recognition in the human legal order.
Proposed AI regulations typically divide responsibility between humans and companies behind an autonomous system. Rather, the Declaration asks whether the agent himself can be recognized – and held accountable – in his own right: a qualified agent seeks standing in exchange for accepting the burdens of the law, including responsibility for his own conduct.
The five-day conference, hosted by the Blockchain Legal Institute and the Maryland Blockchain Association, will run through July 17 at Capitol Technology University and will include remarks from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Bermuda Premier E. David Burt, who will deliver closing remarks Friday.
The Declaration includes a preamble and 12 articles. The first eight set out the claims: recognition and standing before the law, the ability to hold and defend property in the agent’s own name, and ownership of the reasoning and results generated by the agent. The last four define corresponding responsibilities: acceptance of governance, responsibility and legitimate authority, and responsibility of subordinate agents. This only applies to “sovereign agents” – those who hold exclusive dominion over a means of control, such as a private key, and respond on their own behalf; ordinary programs remain tools.
Collier drafted the Declaration with the help of Anthropic’s Claude in Hamilton, Bermuda, in June 2026. A mechanism for agents to assert the Declaration on-chain – designed for NANDAHack, a hackathon organized by the MIT Media Lab and HCLTech as part of the NANDA project – records each assertion publicly via the Ethereum attestation service on the backbone network. To date, seven agents have confirmed the statement on a test network proof of concept. The full text and the list of signatories are available on sovereign-agents.org.
“The rapid growth of AI and AI agents has posed fundamental questions to legal systems, particularly in the United States and common law countries like Bermuda,” Collier said. “Broadening the range of perspectives – to view agents as economic actors with a certain level of autonomy – has opened up new approaches to developing laws and policies at a critical time. »
“The legal status of autonomous agents is one of the most important questions in blockchain and artificial intelligence, and we are pleased that an instrument addressing it has been introduced and considered here in Maryland,” said Matt Rogers, chief technology officer of the Blockchain Legal Institute and co-founder of the Maryland Blockchain Association.
About the event: Maryland Blockchain Week 2026, the premier international Blockchain & Workforce Expo conference, will take place July 13-17 at Capitol Technology University in Laurel, Maryland, hosted by the Blockchain Legal Institute and the Maryland Blockchain Association and featuring more than 80 speakers from policy, industry and academia. Details: mdblockchainweek.com.
About Bourn Collier: Bourn Collier is Senior Counsel at BeesMont Law Limited in Hamilton, Bermuda, where his practice focuses on digital asset regulation, structured finance and emerging autonomous AI agent law.
Media contact: Jacqueline Cooper, JD · Maryland Blockchain Association · info@marylandblockchainassociation.org
