Legal regulation of flights of unmanned aerial vehicles: prospects, innovations, problems

The purpose of this article is to study the legal regulation of the legal status of a new object of rights for Russian legislation-unmanned aerial vehicles. To achieve this goal, such tasks are set as analyzing the content of the concept of "unmanned aerial vehicle" and its differentiation from the terms "drone", "quadrocopter"; considering the problems of legal regulation of the procedure for state registration of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia; research of foreign experience and practice of legal regulation of the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The article uses modern methods of scientific cognition, such as general scientific and private scientific research methods, which together allowed us to characterize the legal status of unmanned aerial vehicles and identify legal problems of the operation of these objects on the Russian territory.
The novelty of the study is determined by the novelty of the object of rights itself – unmanned aerial vehicles, which for the first time received legislative recognition in Russia. The results of the study include the formulation of scientific and practical proposals for improving the regulatory and legal regulation of the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia, taking into account the established legal practice in foreign countries.
The study is accompanied by conclusions arising from the analysis of the legislative regulation of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles as objects of rights. Proposals are formulated on the expediency of reducing the mass of unmanned aerial vehicles that are subject to accounting and registration (below 30 kilograms), since this can reduce the risk of serious injuries if they lose control; it is proposed to introduce insurance for commercial filming (following the example of the UK), but insurance should not adversely affect the activities and income of the population; a proposal has been developed to maintain a separate website that will be devoted to the legal regulation of flights of unmanned aerial vehicles, aimed at increasing the level of legal awareness on the part of the population, as well as to register and register vehicles through this portal, for example, as in France; it is proposed to introduce a ban on the flights of unmanned aerial vehicles not only over places where public events and official sports competitions are held, but also over the places of residence of ordinary citizens (except in cases when the unmanned aerial vehicle belongs to a citizen, and the shooting is carried out exclusively over his territory). Such changes should be made to paragraph 52.1 of the Federal Rules for the Use of the Airspace of the Russian Federation

1. Arkhipov V.V., Naumov V.B. [Artificial intelligence and autonomous devices in the context of law: on the development of the first law on robotics in Russia]. Trudy SPIIRAN = Proceedings of SPIIRAN. 2017;(6):46–62. https://doi.org/10.15622/sp.55.2 (In Russ.)]

2. Bevzenko R.S. [A land plot with buildings on it]. Vestnik grazhdanskogo prava = Bulletin of Civil Law. 2017;(1):9–36. (In Russ.)]

3. Vardanyan A.V., Andreev A.S. [Unmanned aerial vehicles as a segment of digital technologies in criminal and post-criminal reality]. Vserossiiskii kriminologicheskii zhurnal = All-Russian Criminological Journal. 2018;12(6):785–794. https://doi.org/10.17150/2500-4255.2018.12(6).785-794 (In Russ.)]

4. Grishchenko G.A. [Legal regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles: the Russian approach and world practice]. Vestnik Universiteta imeni O.E. Kutafina (MGYUA)= Bulletin of the O.E. Kutafin University (MSLA). 2019;(12):129–136. https://doi.org/10.17803/2311-5998.2019.64.12.129-136 (In Russ.)]

5. Gromova E.A. [Public-private partnership in the digital era: the search for the optimal legal form]. Yurist = Lawyer. 2018;(10):34–40. (In Russ.)]

6. Gromova E.A. [Legal aspects of registration and use of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia and abroad]. Pravo i ehkonomika = Law and Economics. 2019;(7):56–60. (In Russ.)]

7. Izmailov A.Yu. [Intellectual technologies and robotic means in agricultural production]. Vestnik Rossiiskoi akademii nauk = Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2019;89(5):536–538. (In Russ.)]

8. Katargina I.V., Matyushin A.V., Zakirova S.V. [FSBI VNIIPO EMERCOM of Russia as part of the unified state system of prevention and liquidation of emergency situations] Bezopasnost' truda v promyshlennosti = Occupational safety in industry. 2015;(11):24–29. (In Russ.)]

9. Kurchenko N.Yu., Truflyak E.V. [Regulatory and legal framework for the use of unmanned aircraft systems]. Krasnodar: KubGAU; 2020. (In Russ.)]

10. Makukhin A.A. [Legislative regulation of the legal status of unmanned aerial vehicles]. Nauchnyi vestnik Kryma = Scientific Bulletin of the Crimea. 2017;1(6):1– 6. (In Russ.)]

11. Medyakov T.S. [Features of administrative and legal regulation of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia and foreign countries]. Collection of materials of the All-Russian scientific and practical seminar "Administrative activity of law enforcement agencies of Russia and foreign countries". Ryazan: Academy of Law of the Federal Penitentiary Service. 2017. Pp. 190–198. (In Russ.)]

12. Motasova D.D. [Civil law regulation of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles under Russian and foreign legislation]. Voennoe pravo = Military law. 2018;4 (50):74–78. (In Russ.)]

13. Sokolov V.B., Teryaev E.D. [Unmanned aerial vehicles: some issues of development and application (review based on the materials of publications on the Internet)]. Mekhatronika, avtomatizatsiya, upravlenie = Mechatronics, automation, control. 2008;(2):12–23. (In Russ.)]

14. Stepanyan A.Zh. [Problems of regulation of unmanned vehicles]. Vestnik Universiteta imeni O.E Kutafina (MGYUA) = Bulletin of the O. E. Kutafin University (MSLA). 2019;(4):169–174. (In Russ.)]

15. Fokin M.S., Ryazanov N.S. [Actual problems of criminal and legal regulation of the illegal use of unmanned mobile vehicles]. Aktual'nye problemy rossiiskogo prava = Actual problems of Russian law. 2018;(1):103–110. https://doi.org/10.17803/1994-1471.2018.86.1.103-110 (In Russ.)]