Assigning Liability In An Autonomous World Together With Reforming The Law According To The Modern Advances In The Medical Field

Abstract

Due to the blooming advancement of technology, the application field of robotics became manifold. From performing surgeries, to shooting trespassers or babysitting our kids, robots started to dominate news headlines. Given the fact that this general intransigence progressively became visible within all sectors, much hype has been engendered towards the growing concern of its legal implications. Even though the Commissioners, along with the critics and lawyers, have taken dutiful note of it, the general body of current legal principle still remains a myth. Mainly focusing on the increased risk of a surgical error, and the injuries it might produce, the following sections of this paper try to recognize and stabilize the up-coming liability challenges. As different scenarios give rise to different type of liabilities, the upshots of using surgeon robots can generate two outcomes. Firstly, since a robot is not seen as a liable legal person, the liability switches from the manufacturer to the surgeons operating the robot. Thus, the responsibility gap, focused in this project, will shift between two areas of law: tort liability and product liability. Even though product liability and tort liability are already in place, an additional layer of obscurity comes from these ‘untested’ areas of law in respect to the budding field of robotics. Therefore, this paper will explore the atypical difficulty in establishing the boundaries between the two ‘regulatory liability-box’, as well as proposing new set of laws in order to create a more transparent legislation. The integrant emphasis here will be to impose a liability system of ‘corrective justice’ classified in terms of two distinct approaches.