Liability in UAV / UAS operations: Consideration of who should bear the cost of damages in UAV / UAS accidents

This paper considers the current state of liability law for UAVs and UASs. It discusses which party or parties may be liable for various types of incidents and considers how various factors in incidents may trigger complex disputes. The ambiguity as to responsibility, it is concluded, may result in a protracted litigation process and, thus, significant delays to compensation of an injured party. This is, of course, particularly problematic in the case of a technology that can go virtually anywhere, creating the possibility of a multitude of injuries that may not be easily insured against (or even fully identified). From this, it is concluded that a mechanism for identifying a single responsible party (from the perspective of the injured) must be codified into law and a framework for doing so is presented.