The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Robot Law edited by by Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin, & Ian Kerr. Here is a description:
Like the Internet before it, robotics is a socially and economically transformative technology. Robot Law explores how the increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment into hospitals, public spaces, and battlefields requires rethinking of a wide variety of philosophical and public policy issues, including how this technology interacts with existing legal regimes, and thus may inspire changes in policy and in law.
This volume collects the efforts of a diverse group of scholars who each, in their own way, has worked to overcome barriers in order to facilitate necessary and timely discussions of a technology in its infancy. Identifying controversial legal, ethical, and philosophical problems, the authors reveal how issues surrounding robotics and regulation are more complicated than engineers could have anticipated, and just how much definitional and applied work remains to be done.
This groundbreaking examination of a brand-new reality will be of interest and of use to a variety of groups as the authors include engineers, ethicists, lawyers, roboticists, philosophers, and serving military.
And from the reviews:
'The breadth of fascinating legal and public policy challenges posed by the advent of robots (both physical and virtual) into the commerce of daily life are well represented in this wonderful collection of essays. It is truly heartening to witness the depth of reflection offered by the contributing legal and social theorists regarding ways to navigate the countless perceivable policy challenges and uncertainties the roboticization of warfare, commerce, and social interactions affords. With this volume robot law establishes its place as a field that deserves serious attention.'
- Wendell Wallach, author, A Dangerous Master: How to keep technology from slipping beyond our control and Chair of
the Technology and Ethics study group, Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, US
'The timing of Robot Law is perfect. If law is going to catch up with technology, it's going to need this book. The editors have convened an expert group of authors to guide us into the future on a wide range of issues. I'd be surprised if any legal case in robotics, in the next decade or so, does not refer to this touchstone work.'
- Patrick Lin, California Polytechnic State University, US
