Civil Liability for Damages Caused by Unmanned Vehicles in Russian and Foreign Law

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the identification and exploration of the legal regime of unmanned vehicles as objects of civil rights. The purpose of the study is to develop an adequate mechanism for the legal regulation of relations using innovative digital technologies (unmanned vehicles) in the transport industry. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: 1) to analyze the provisions of the current legislation regulating relations regarding the use of unmanned vehicles; 2) to determine the features of the civil law regime of unmanned vehicles as an object of civil rights; 3) to identify the conditions of liability for damages caused by using unmanned vehicles. The main issue with identification of unmanned vehicles as objects of civil rights is the broadness and vagueness of the terms used in the legislation, including the questionable term vehicle. The category of unmanned vehicles is not precisely defined and might or might not include not only unmanned transport, but also such objects as drones, wheeled robots, etc. The study proposes new regulation with identification of its scope and clear principles for the discernment of unmanned vehicles as means of transportation. For the development of new regulation, the issue of liability is especially critical. The study shows how the inclusion of strict liability, risk-balancing, and other mechanism of liability allocation can influence the norms, and how governing bodies in different countries apply strategies that include the legislative methods, self-regulation, and the usage of existing liability models.