3rd ALIAS Conference Presentation 5-6 October 2015

2. The Legal Case

3. The future scenario
• Introduction of higher levels of automation
expected with SESAR
Potential CHANGE in the way the machine
SUPPORTS human performance
potential NEW ALLOCATION of the DECISION
MAKING TASKS between the human and the
automation

4. The ALIAS context: Implications of
automation
• Humans as controllers and supervisors
• Delegation of task from operators to technology
• Hybrid agency (man-machine coagency)
• The challenge of complexity
• Machine intelligence and autonomy

5. Significant legal questions to answer:
Does the higher level of automation imply any change in the
responsibility of the actors involved?
Who is going to be legally liable for damage resulting from human,
technical or organisational failures within a highly automated
socio-technical system?

6. The Legal Case
• A novel methodology to address legal issues of
automated technologies for ATM during their design
process. It includes:
– A standard process to identify legal liabilities at the design stage,
in a structured way, so that problems are addressed before
deployment, through convenient technological adaptations or
legal arrangements.
– A variety of supporting tools (such as tables to assess levels of
automation and identify tasks and duties, flow diagrams to guide
the assessment process, tables and reports which embed the
produced results).

7. Five leading principles
– Design according to liability: legal liabilities should be addressed in a
coherent and comprehensive way at the design stage of a new concept
– Proactive approach to liabilities: legal liabilities should be addressed
from an anticipatory risk-management perspective
– Socio-technical approach to liabilities: as system failures can only be
understood in a systemic socio-technical perspective, so should be legal
liabilities
– Multidisciplinary approach: technical and legal knowledge should be
integrated, to facilitate the communication between legal and
technical experts
– Standard Case-based approach: the legal case complements the other
available Cases and is consistent with the Generic Transversal Areas
Assessment Process of SESAR

8. New approach to liability
We look at liability as one of
the inherent properties of the
ATM systems.
Human
Performance
ATM
system
LIABILITY
 liabilities are likely to
affect the
stakeholders’
acceptability and to
constrain the
application of a new
technology.
 We propose to
“design according to
liabilities.”

9. The design according to liabilities
Enlarges the scope of
the operational
concept design
Addresses liability
issues early in the
system’s lifecycle
Ensures the legal
feasibility and
acceptability of the
new technology

10. User of the Legal Case
The Legal Case is mainly designed to be used by
a Legal Analyst.
We assume the Legal Analyst to be a member of
an interdisciplinary project team.
In this respect, the Legal Case can be conceived
as key communication tool between experts
belonging to different communities.

11. The 4 steps of the Legal Case
UNDERSTAND THE
ATM CONCEPT
• Collect background
information
• Identify the level
of automation
• Identify possible
failures
IDENTIFY THE
LIABILITY ISSUES
• Identify liability
risks
• Examine the legal
risk
PERFORM THE
LEGAL ANALYSIS
• Perform the legal
analysis and
identify
acceptable legal
measures
COLLECT
FINDINGS AND
PRODUCE
RESULTS
• Produce results of
the analysis and
recommendations

12. The Legal Case process

13. The maps approach
• A novel way to represent legal issues and to link them to
failures and risk analyses, including:
– Classification maps
– Argumentation maps
• Maps are representation, connection, communication and assessment
tools:
– Connection tool: they structure and connect information about the system
failures and damages on the one side, and the applicable legal framework on
the other side
– Communication tool: they work as a powerful visual representation and
communication medium between different stakeholders
– Assessment tool: they support the legal risk analysis carried out in the LC,
helping to identify and evaluate legal risks.

14. Argumentation maps
• Argumentation maps are visual
representations of set of arguments.
• Visual representations of arguments are used
to organise information, structure reasoning
and evaluate evidence. The nodes are
navigable on different levels, and evaluations
are supported.

15. Legal analysis maps

16. Step 1: understand the ATM Concept
Step 1 is meant to provide an understanding of the ATM concept, focusing on:
 the scope of the technology
 its use in the operational context
 its impacts on allocation of tasks, roles, and responsibilities
 its possible failures

17. Step 2: identify liability issues
 Liability risks associated with possible failures are identified through risk-liability and
damage-liability maps
 Liability risks are assessed though legal-analysis maps, according to existing laws and
contractual arrangements

18. Step 3: perform the legal analysis
 The acceptability of the legal implications identified in previous step is discussed.
 Possible legal arrangements or technological mitigations are identified and
discussed
 Possible modifications to the existing public legal framework are possibly advanced

19. Step 4: collect findings and produce results
 The results of the Legal Case are collected
 They are presented in a structured and standardised way.

20. The 4 outputs of the Legal Case
description of the relevant aspects of the operational
concept; level of automation and task-responsibilities;
identification of possible failures
relationships between failures/damages and liability
issues; identification of liability risk
acceptability and sustainability of the legal implications
of the ATM concept (for all stakeholders)
recommendations and proposal for changes
1
2
3
4

21. Current status of the methodology
• It has been validated through two sets of activities: test
applications and interviews with experts
• Test Applications: applied and tested the
methodology with relevant stakeholders
• Interviews: selected experts from relevant ATM
organizations and institutions