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University of South Carolina

Faculty Publications

2014

Liability

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

'Sophisticated Robots': Balancing Liability, Regulation, And Innovation, F. Patrick Hubbard Sep 2014

'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 …


Managing The Risks Of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal And Regulatory Approaches, Nathan D. Richardson, Sheila Olmstead Jan 2014

Managing The Risks Of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal And Regulatory Approaches, Nathan D. Richardson, Sheila Olmstead

Faculty Publications

Booming production of oil and gas from shale, enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology, has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Study of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward has focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important — and in some senses predominant — role. Changes to that …