> If a drug dealer steels a kilo from another drug dealer he's not going to take it to the courts.
As you can imagine, courts do not uphold contracts where there is an unlawful objective ("I paid him to beat my boss and he didn't!") and in most jurisdictions you cannot obtain property rights in certain things (in others you can, but asking for enforcement exposes you to criminal prosecution so in practice it doesn't happen).
Bitcoin is not a prohibited item and the exchange of bitcoins looks very much like contracts that don't have a unlawful objective.
Put another way: courts would probably enforce rights for trades made on Mt Gox, but not on Silk Road.
As you can imagine, courts do not uphold contracts where there is an unlawful objective ("I paid him to beat my boss and he didn't!") and in most jurisdictions you cannot obtain property rights in certain things (in others you can, but asking for enforcement exposes you to criminal prosecution so in practice it doesn't happen).
Bitcoin is not a prohibited item and the exchange of bitcoins looks very much like contracts that don't have a unlawful objective.
Put another way: courts would probably enforce rights for trades made on Mt Gox, but not on Silk Road.
(IANAL, TINLA)