Connor Champ of the Law Commission will provide an overview and briefing on the consultation. For ARPAS-UK members keen to contribute to information regulation: Autonomy in Aviation: drones and advanced air mobility.

About the Speaker:

Connor Champ has been at the Law Commission for six years. He has previously worked on the Automated Vehicles Project.

He has a DPhil & MPhil in Law from the University of Oxford, has lectured at the University of Tuebingen, has an LLB from Queen Mary University, London and a BA, BSc and PhD from the University of Queensland.

Background to the Consultation

The Law Commission has been asked by the Civil Aviation Authority (“CAA”) and Department for Transport (“DfT”) to review the law around autonomous flight, in order to support the safe development of rapidly advancing technology.

The three-year review is partly funded by UK Research & Innovation (“UKRI”) through the Future Flight Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and the Economic and Social Research Council. It will examine the existing legal framework to identify the challenges and opportunities linked to the introduction of highly automated systems into the aviation sector.

Summary of the Consultation

Automation is already heavily used in aviation today, but recent breakthroughs have seen the development of new, innovative autonomous and highly automated systems and vehicles. These include drones, as well as advanced air mobility vehicles, such as vertical take-off and landing (“VTOL”) aircraft, which can provide short journeys for a small number of people.

Increased automation has the potential to deliver substantial benefits to the entire aviation system, UK industry, and the public. To realise these benefits, the UK’s legislative and regulatory framework needs to be sufficiently agile to facilitate innovation, whilst robust enough to maintain the high safety standards that aviation enjoys.

The project reviews existing legislation to identify any legislative blocks, gaps or uncertainties. The Commission will consult with key stakeholders in the aviation and innovation sectors, before proposing a series of law reforms that will ensure the UK is ready to take advantage of oncoming advances in automation.