THE MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE ON IMPOSING CIVIL LIABILITIES IN ROAD ACCIDENTS INVOLVING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become the fundamental catalyst in the research and development of autonomous vehicle (AV). AVs equipped with AI are expected to perform better than humans and forecasted to reduce the number of road accidents. AV will improve humans’ quality of life, such as creating more mobility for the elderly and disabled, increasing productivity, and creating an environmentally friendly system. Despite AV’s promising abilities, reports indicate that AV can go phut, causing road fatalities to the AV user and other road users. The autonomous nature of AV exacerbates the difficulty in determining who is at fault. This article aims to examine the ability of the existing legal framework to identify the person at fault so as to determine the tortious liability in road accidents involving AV. This article demonstrated that the existing legal scheme is insufficient to determine tortious liability in road accidents involving AV. This article explored the possibility of shouldering the liability on the manufacturer, the user, and even on the AV itself. This article also investigated alternative approaches that could be adopted to resolve issues on the distribution of tortious liability in road accidents involving AV. The outcome of this article could contribute to issues relating to the liability of AI.

Incorporating Lean Construction agent into the Building Standards Act: the Spanish case study

There is a demand for lean construction in Europe; even though lean construction is still an emerging field and there is growing interest, there are no regulations on this topic. The main objective of this research is to regulate this role when in a project and to define and develop a building agent structure, according to the Building Standards Act (LOE by its acronym in Spanish), to be able to incorporate it into the Spanish law, protecting it from civil liabilities. In Spain, there is jurisprudence in civil jurisdiction based on the LOE to acquit or convict building agents, who are defined in the courts as “constructive managers” or similar. For this reason, courts could establish in the future several liabilities for the lean construction specialist and other agents of the project, depending on their actions and based on the implementation of the lean project delivery system, the target value design and the integrated project delivery. Conversely, it is possible that the level of action of the lean construction specialist may comprise design management, construction management and contract management. Accordingly, one or more building agents should be appropriately incorporated into the LOE according to their functions and responsibilities and based on the levels of action of the lean construction specialist. The creation of the following agents is proposed: design manager, construction manager and contract manager, definitions that are developed in this study. These agents are loosely defined, because any project manager, building information modeling manager or similar may act as one or as more-than-one of them. Finally, the creation of the lean construction manager is also proposed, as the agent who takes on the role of the design manager, construction manager and contract manager, but focused on the lean production principles.

The Role of Law in Addressing the Good Samaritan’s Dilemma: A Chinese Model?

This article begins with an account of the contexts surrounding China’s “Good Samaritan’s Dilemma”—the fear of civil liabilities as a result of a rescue attempt. It highlights how a notorious hit-and-run case in 2011 has prompted several provinces to consider Good Samaritan law—legislation aimed at encouraging altruism. In light of diverse opinions over the pros and cons of Good Samaritan law, it considers whether law should have a role to play in shaping moral behaviours. On the basis that the law has been on the books for as long as over a century in much of the Western world and parts of East Asia, this article explores how overseas experience may provide insights to China in its adaptation of Good Samaritan law. It concludes that, in China’s case, a non-punitive regime that seeks to protect and compensate Good Samaritans may help encourage the proverbial Chinese bystanders to be altruistic neighbours.