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Full-Text Articles in Law
'Sophisticated Robots': Balancing Liability, Regulation, And Innovation, F. Patrick Hubbard
'Sophisticated Robots': Balancing Liability, Regulation, And Innovation, F. Patrick Hubbard
Faculty Publications
Our lives are being transformed by large mobile “sophisticated robots” with increasingly higher levels of autonomy, intelligence, and interconnectivity among themselves. For example, driverless automobiles are likely to become commercially available within a decade. Many people who suffer physical injuries from these robots will seek legal redress for their injury, and regulatory schemes are likely to impose requirements to reduce the number and severity of injuries.
This Article addresses the issue of whether the current liability and regulatory systems provide a fair, efficient method for balancing the concern for physical safety against the need to incentivize the innovation necessary to …
Proximity-Driven Liability, Bryant Walker Smith
Proximity-Driven Liability, Bryant Walker Smith
Faculty Publications
This working paper argues that commercial sellers’ growing information about, access to, and control over their products, product users, and product uses could significantly expand their point-of-sale and post-sale obligations toward people endangered by these products. The paper first describes how companies are embracing new technologies that expand their information, access, and control, with primary reference to the increasingly automated and connected motor vehicle. It next analyzes how this proximity to product, user, and use could impact product-related claims for breach of implied warranty, defect in design or information, post-sale failure to warn or update, and negligent enabling of a …
Strict Products Liability At 50: Four Histories, Kyle Graham
Strict Products Liability At 50: Four Histories, Kyle Graham
Faculty Publications
This article offers four different perspectives on the strict products-liability "revolution" that climaxed a half-century ago. One of these narratives relates the prevailing assessment of how this innovation coalesced and spread across the states. The three alternative histories introduced by this article both challenge and complement the standard account by viewing the shift toward strict products liability through "populist," "practical," and "contingent" lenses, respectively. The first of these narratives considers the contributions that plaintiffs and their counsel made toward this change in the law. The second focuses upon how certain types of once-common products cases forged a practical argument for …