“Drone” law taking flight

Lawyers will need to brush up on drones as the remotely piloted aircraft systems increase in popularity.

As with the internet, the development of drones will require practitioners to “adapt their classical knowledge base to a previously niche activity that will become widespread,” say Joseph Dalby and Ruhi Sethi, of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square.

“And unless aviation law is your specialisation, it also means absorbing an understanding of air space, the rules of the air, and the specific regulatory regime for unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Writing in NLJ this week, they explain that exposure to “drone law” could arise through regulation, criminal or public law, or the enforcement of private law rights such as nuisance.

Dalby and Sethi predict the Information Commissioner will give directions at some point as “drones put eyes-in-the-sky, a facility which will herald a significant increase in professional surveillance, photojournalism, and curiosity-driven amateurs.”