The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) has opened a consultation on its draft Legal Statement addressing liability for AI harms under the private law of England and Wales. It’s seeking stakeholder views on whether the draft (annexed to the consultation) adequately tackles the key areas of uncertainty around how liability should be assigned when AI systems cause damage.
For the purposes of the draft Legal Statement, AI is defined as “a technology that is autonomous” – intended to capture:
- an unpredictable relationship between input and output,
- opacity of reasoning, and
- a limited ability for users to control the output.
The autonomous behaviour of AI introduces both perceived and genuine legal uncertainty. While the draft highlights that in many scenarios current law provides clear outcomes, the absence of case law on AI related harm creates real uncertainty about how courts will ultimately approach these questions.
The consultation is open for responses until 13 February 2026.
To explore the scope of the draft Legal Statement and the questions it raises, read our LawNow article: https://lnkd.in/dhD8MkB5.
