Autonomous robots require new law

Wojciech Bazan, attorney and partner at JDP, noted during the "Modern Production" debate at the New Industry Forum that automation and robotization are forcing change. These changes should also address the issue of liability for the actions of autonomous robots, including humanoid ones .

He pointed out that although, according to the law, a robot is not a legal entity, companies are responsible for it.

He cautioned, however, that the situation here is not clear-cut. It may turn out, for example, that the robot had a manufacturing defect that contributed to the undesirable event. In such a case, the machine supplier would be liable.

As attorney Bazan noted, current law is not perfect. Article 435 of the Civil Code addresses this issue . However, it was written at a time when autonomous robots were largely unheard of. The title of this article itself illustrates this well: "Liability for Damage Caused by the Operation of an Enterprise or Plant Quite Accurately."

- We operate under an old legal system that needs to be adapted to new realities - said Wojciech Bazan.

The key issue here will be supervision – responsibility for the robots must be established. The more autonomous the robots become, the more necessary it is to establish rules regarding who can interfere with the robot's operations and under what procedures, and whether they are responsible for doing so.