Airspace in an Age of Drones 95 Boston University Law Review 2015

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95 B.U. L. Rev. 155 (2015)
Airspace in an Age of Drones

handle is hein.journals/bulr95 and id is 161 raw text is:

AIRSPACE IN AN AGE OF DRONES

TROY A. RULE*

IN TRO D UCTIO N ............................................................................................... 156
I. THE GROWING CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING DOMESTIC DRONES ... 159
A. The Burgeoning Domestic Drone Industry .................................. 160
B. Escalating Conflicts and Confusion ............................................ 163
C. An Ambiguity in Property Law .................................................... 165
1. Causby v. United States: Partial Clarification of
A irspace R ights ..................................................................... 166
2. Unanswered Questions in Causby's Wake ............................ 168
D. Drone Technologies Now Reviving the Debate ........................... 169
1. Drones and Aerial Trespass ................................................... 170
2. Government Drones and Takings Law .................................. 171
3. Drone-Assisted Searches and the Fourth Amendment .......... 172
II. LoW-ALTITUDE AIRSPACE RIGHTS: A PROPERTY THEORY
PER SPECTIVE ....................................................................................... 174
A. The Private Property System for Surface Land ........................... 174
1. Clearly Defined Parcel Boundaries ....................................... 175
2. A Strict Liability Exclusion Regime ..................................... 176
B. The Regulated Commons System for High-Altitude
A irsp ace ....................................................................................... 179
C. Internally Inconsistent Rules for Low-Altitude Airspace ............. 182
1. A Predominance of Exclusion Rules ..................................... 182
2. Governance Rules for Conflicts Involving Aircraft .............. 184
III. CLARIFYING AIRSPACE EXCLUSION RIGHTS IN RESPONSE TO
M ODERN D RONES ................................................................................ 186
A. A Proposal for Greater Precision in Airspace Rights ................. 187
B. Conditions Ripe for Strengthening Low-Altitude Airspace
R ig h ts ........................................................................................... 189
1. Sizable Potential Gains through Internalization of
E xternalities ........................................................................... 189
2. Innovations Driving Down the Costs of Internalization ........ 193
3. Other Factors Supporting a Switch to Exclusion Rules ......... 194
IV. AIRSPACE EXCLUSION RIGHTS LAWS AS PART OF A COORDINATED
REGULATORY REGIME FOR DOMESTIC DRONES ................................. 197
A. Federal Safety Standards and GPS Registration

* Associate Professor of Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Many thanks to
Karen Bradshaw-Schulz, Laura Coordes, Zack Gubler, Dennis Karjala, Rhett Larson, and
Kaipo Matsumura for their valuable input on early versions of this Article.
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