On Criminal Responsibility for Damage Caused During the Operation of Highly Automated and Unmanned 264 Vehicles

The author proposes a concept of criminal responsibility for harm caused by the operation of unmanned mobile objects. The scientific methods of cognition (systemic, logical, chronological, comparative legal and formal legal) are the methodological basis of the article. The use of the dialectical method made it possible to give the definition of highly automated vehicles, the operation of which is already being experimentally carried out in the Russian Federation. The aspects of responsibility for harm that may be caused during such exploitation are briefly discussed. The author believes that the modern technical developments are aimed at creating unmanned vehicles. Therefore, in the near future, we should expect them to appear in everyday use. Since the possibility of socially dangerous harm by using such objects is not completely excluded, the author proposes the concept of criminal responsibility in appropriate cases. Applying the method of scientific modeling, it will be possible to attribute criminal responsibility to four groups of subjects: the manufacturer of an unmanned vehicle, the owner of an unmanned vehicle, the entity, authorized by the manufacturer, responsible for maintaining an unmanned vehicle, or another person. Model situations when responsibility can be assigned to each of these subjects are described. The issue of establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between a specific act of a subject and a socially dangerous consequence has been raised. The author criticizes proposals of adding a number of new special articles on responsibility for harm that may be caused by the operation of unmanned vehicles to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. She proves that existing offences are suitable for the qualification of a number of acts. There is a demand by some to clarify the signs or to add qualifying circumstances. Acts not covered by these offences will require the addition of new offences to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The author proposes the term “unmanned mobile objects” to denote unmanned vehicles and justifies its suitability for the text of the criminal law. She argues that, in order to ensure their safe operation, relevant regulatory acts will be required. These acts which will spell out the rules, the violation of which, in the event of socially dangerous consequences, may entail criminal responsibility of different subjects. The conclusion is made about the mandatory blanket nature of the norms that will establish criminal responsibility in the field under consideration. Some rules are named that will be necessary to ensure material grounds for criminal responsibility in the event of socially dangerous harm during the operation of unmanned vehicles.

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