자율비행항공기와 관련한 민사법적 책임

Legal Liability for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The existing aircraft operator's liability, in which a person is involved in the operation of an aircraft, can be viewed as an intermediate liability or limited no-fault liability where the burden of proof is switched. However, the legal nature of the operator's liability for autonomous flying aircraft operated by the autonomous flight system should be considered differently from the existing one. In other words, the aircraft owner of an autonomous flying aircraft bears no-fault liability that cannot claim immunity even if the owner does not directly intervene in the operation of the aircraft. Therefore, the ‘force majeure’ exemption provision of Article 931, No. 4 of the Commercial Act, which is the immunity provision for aircraft operators, should be excluded from application in the case of autonomous flying aircraft. If an aircraft accident occurs due to the negligence of the victim, the aircraft owner cannot be held liable. Consequently, it is necessary to enact a special law for autonomous flying aircraft on no-fault liability that stipulates the above limiting factors as a condition subsequent. Until then, for the gap in regulation, it is reasonable to apply mutatis mutandis rules related to operation under the Compulsory Motor Vehicle Liability Security Act applicable to autonomous vehicles. This is because civil legal responsibilities related to the operation of autonomous flying aircraft are in line with civil legal responsibilities related to the driving of autonomous vehicles