This article explores the extent to which the criminal law defence of necessity in both its excusatory and justificatory forms can apply appropriately in situations of emergency or natural disaster. Some particular problems are examined, including the possible limitation of the defence to responses to threats to life rather than threats to property and arguments that the defence only applies to persons to whom a defendant owed some duty of protection. The article draws on research into disaster response and recovery to suggest that several formulations of the defence are not well-suited to protect disaster responders, particularly spontaneous volunteer responders, and calls for reform to reconcile more effectively the competing interests and policy imperatives arising in disaster situations.
World Robot Summit (WRS) has several robot competitions, and we will participate it in the infrastructure and disaster response category. Participating teams develop their robot system by teleoperation and/or autonomous operation and run it in a set of courses modelling and simplifying disaster responding situations. The authors will attend the challenge of the tunnel disaster response and recovery, in which we are requested to achieve an investigation and rescue scenario of a tunnel fire with simulated robots. As preparation, we develop simulated robot models and corresponding software as a team. In this article, we report out activity to the robot competition and student’s project-based learning by joining it.
Crowdsourcing and open licensing allow more people to participate in research and humanitarian activities. Open data, such as geographic information shared through OpenStreetMap and image datasets from disasters, can be useful for disaster response and recovery work. This chapter shares a real-world case study of humanitarian-driven imagery analysis, using open-source crowdsourcing technology. Shared philosophies in open technologies and digital humanities, including remixing and the wisdom of the crowd, are reflected in this case study.
Emergency Situations and the Defence of Necessity