SAFE INTEGRATION OF CIVIL DRONES: LAW, SELF-OPERATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

The document analyzes the regulatory gap in EU drone law regarding self-operating systems, arguing that current dichotomous definitions of autonomy and an over-reliance on operational oversight (via the 'remote pilot') are inadequate. It proposes a 'spectral approach' to autonomy and a shift toward design-based regulation to ensure safety in an increasingly automated airspace, specifically within the U-Space traffic management framework.

• EU drone law employs a dichotomous definition of 'autonomous operation'—where a drone is either fully autonomous or not—which contradicts the technical understanding of autonomy as a continuum or spectrum.
• The current regulatory definition of 'remote pilot' is insufficient for self-operating drones because it treats active controllers and emergency intervenors equally, failing to account for the reduced role of humans in highly automated systems.
• There is a regulatory paradox where 'autonomous operations' are defined by the absence of a remote pilot, yet the law still requires the drone operator to allocate responsibilities normally held by a remote pilot, such as avoiding collisions.
• The U-Space traffic management system is designed as an automated infrastructure that challenges safety through reliability concerns, the difficult transition from human-centric to automation-centric systems, and framework irregularities.
• EU drone regulations are characterized by an 'operation-centric risk-based' approach that prioritizes operational oversight over design oversight, potentially leaving systemic design flaws unaddressed.
• The EU's approach to drone autonomy is incoherent with its broader AI regulatory framework, as the EU AI Act mandates human oversight for high-risk systems while drone regulations permit operations without any human intervention.
• Self-operating drone infrastructures act as both a 'tool' for safety governance (through automatic services) and a 'target' of governance (subject to legal regulations), creating a 'thinking infrastructure' that shapes user cognition.
• The author recommends a 'spectral approach' to defining autonomy to provide the flexibility needed to regulate drones with varying levels of self-operation and to reduce regulatory lag.
• To improve safety, the author argues for a shift toward 'design-based regulation,' ensuring systems are compliant by design and holding designers more accountable for the emergent behaviors of AI systems.
• Legal rules alone have a limited role in ensuring the safety of self-operating drones because safety is a sociotechnical outcome dependent on the interaction of law, technical artifacts, and human behavior.

APA

Nawaz, S. A. (2025). SAFE INTEGRATION OF CIVIL DRONES: LAW, SELF-OPERATION & INFRASTRUCTURE. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dc02ccd-2fa2-485f-a540-86c38952f2d3/Safe integration of civil drones--Nawaz dissertation.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Nawaz, Samar Abbas. SAFE INTEGRATION OF CIVIL DRONES: LAW, SELF-OPERATION & INFRASTRUCTURE. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2025. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dc02ccd-2fa2-485f-a540-86c38952f2d3/Safe integration of civil drones--Nawaz dissertation.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nawaz |first1=Samar Abbas |title=SAFE INTEGRATION OF CIVIL DRONES: LAW, SELF-OPERATION & INFRASTRUCTURE |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=January 2025 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dc02ccd-2fa2-485f-a540-86c38952f2d3/Safe integration of civil drones--Nawaz dissertation.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nawaz2025safe, author = {Nawaz, Samar Abbas}, title = {{SAFE INTEGRATION OF CIVIL DRONES: LAW, SELF-OPERATION \& INFRASTRUCTURE}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dc02ccd-2fa2-485f-a540-86c38952f2d3/Safe integration of civil drones--Nawaz dissertation.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }