Michael Berry and Nabiha Syed are guest-blogging at The Volokh Conspiracy this week in a series dedicated to the regulation of private drone use. Their first post, on “journo-drones,” is here. Today, they write about philosophical approaches to drone regulation:

As policymakers consider drone regulation – particularly with respect to privacy and safety – the possible fields of regulation fall into five principal realms: operators, flight, purpose, property and surreptitious use. Some of these categories face practical difficulties, while others present constitutional issues. Nevertheless, these five fields offer a framework to help make sense of the legislation and regulation emerging around the use of drones.

The authors intend to visit the history of the FAA’s piecemeal approach, tomorrow.

In the meantime, we would suggest that they consider the consumer product approach to sUAS regulations for one of their posts.