Taivo Liivak successfully defended his doctoral thesis

The School of Law of the University of Tartu has a new Doctor!

On 11 January Taivo Liivak successfully defended his doctoral thesis “Tort Liability for Damage Caused by Self-driving Vehicles under Estonian Law”.

The work was supervised by:
Prof. Janno Lahe, University of Tartu;
Prof. Irene Kull, University of Tartu;
Prof. Giovanni Sartor, University of Bologna (Italy); European University Institute (Italy);
Prof. Mark Fišel, University of Tartu.

The work was opposed by:
Prof. Päivi Korpisaari, University of Helisnki (Finland).

The doctoral thesis assessed what problems the damage caused by a self-driving vehicle raises in the field of liability for unlawful damage. This dissertation examined, inter alia, whether, on what grounds and against whom an injured person can bring a claim for damages under fault-based tortious liability, strict liability and product liability in a situation where the damage is caused by a self-driving vehicle. Additionally, it analysed the situations in which an error in the software of a self-driving vehicle or in the digital services used by it could be deemed a defect of the vehicle and whether and to what an extent it is justified to discharge manufacturers of self-driving vehicles from liability based on the development risk defence. The dissertation also discussed how to assess the size of the risk of operation of self-driving vehicles and how to divide liability in a situation where mutual damage has been caused with the involvement of a self-driving vehicle, given that in the case of the latter, the driver’s conduct cannot be taken into account.

Find out more about the doctoral thesis on the University of Tartu website.