Joseph Dalby & Ruhi Sethi explore the legal implications of increased drone use
Last week the House of Lords called for an EU-wide register of drone owners, or remotely piloted aircraft systems (which are part of the wider category of unmanned aerial systems/unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)). Last month, drones were spotted over Paris landmarks, at obviously a very sensitive time. In January, Scotland Yard declared central London a “no-drone zone”, while the police nationwide have announced plans to use drones for surveillance. To add to this, there have been several reported “near misses” at national airports. Meanwhile, the idea of flying drones is capturing the imagination of professionals and hobbyists. While the development of drones is not as revolutionary as driverless cars, they do represent an impressive technological advance. There are some fanciful figures about the future value of the industry worldwide: $130m in revenue in 2015, with unit sales of consumer drones expected to reach $400,000m, $1bn in three years and $89bn in 10 years.
New understanding required
Amidst all this practitioners will once again be asked, as they were with the emergence
