diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f4b768e78..8c973999d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 ## [0.32.1] - 2021-05-15
 ### Changed
 - [Execution] CallErrors no longer emit very long rather pointless (since there is no tooling to help interpret them currently) EVM call traces
+- [JS] Return byte arrays as Buffers from decode (only return fixed-width byteNN types as hex strings)
 
 
 ## [0.32.0] - 2021-05-14
diff --git a/NOTES.md b/NOTES.md
index d26325279..1596c5f82 100644
--- a/NOTES.md
+++ b/NOTES.md
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 ### Changed
 - [Execution] CallErrors no longer emit very long rather pointless (since there is no tooling to help interpret them currently) EVM call traces
+- [JS] Return byte arrays as Buffers from decode (only return fixed-width byteNN types as hex strings)
 
diff --git a/js/src/convert.ts b/js/src/convert.ts
index 72ca41f88..ae7d77399 100644
--- a/js/src/convert.ts
+++ b/js/src/convert.ts
@@ -48,14 +48,18 @@ export function withoutArrayElements(result: Result): Record<string, unknown> {
 function abiToBurrow(arg: unknown, type: string): unknown {
   if (/address/.test(type)) {
     return recApply(unprefixedHexString, arg as NestedArray<string>);
-  } else if (/bytes/.test(type)) {
+  } else if (/bytes[0-9]+/.test(type)) {
+    // Handle bytes32 differently - for legacy reasons they are used as identifiers and represented as hex strings
     return recApply(unprefixedHexString, arg as NestedArray<string>);
+  } else if (/bytes/.test(type)) {
+    return recApply(toBuffer, arg as NestedArray<string>);
   } else if (/int/.test(type)) {
     return recApply(numberToBurrow, arg as NestedArray<BigNumber>);
   }
   return arg;
 }
 
+
 function burrowToAbi(arg: unknown, type: string): unknown {
   if (/address/.test(type)) {
     return recApply(prefixedHexString, arg as NestedArray<string>);
diff --git a/project/history.go b/project/history.go
index 7dc63ee30..169d84b0e 100644
--- a/project/history.go
+++ b/project/history.go
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ var History relic.ImmutableHistory = relic.NewHistory("Hyperledger Burrow", "htt
 	MustDeclareReleases("0.32.1 - 2021-05-15",
 		`### Changed
 - [Execution] CallErrors no longer emit very long rather pointless (since there is no tooling to help interpret them currently) EVM call traces
+- [JS] Return byte arrays as Buffers from decode (only return fixed-width byteNN types as hex strings)
 `,
 		"0.32.0 - 2021-05-14",
 		`### Changed