CIVIL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY AUTONOMOUS DECISIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAUDI, FRENCH, AND EUROPEAN UNION LAW

CIVIL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY AUTONOMOUS DECISIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAUDI, FRENCH, AND EUROPEAN UNION LAW | Zenodo Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Zenodo is currently experiencing slowness and intermittent outages due to heavy automated traffic from bots and AI crawlers. We are aware of the problem, and our team is focused on stabilizing the service. Thank you for your patience. Grow with Scientific Culture Published May 7, 2026 | Version v1 Journal article Open CIVIL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY AUTONOMOUS DECISIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAUDI, FRENCH, AND EUROPEAN UNION LAW Authors/Creators Emad Ahmad Abousud (Contact person) 1 Show affiliations 1.

Business Administration Department, College of Business, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11565, KSA Description This study examines civil liability arising from damages caused by the autonomous decisions of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, employing a comparative analytical approach across three legal frameworks, namely, the Saudi legal system, the French Civil Code, and European Union regulatory initiatives. With the increasing reliance of AI systems on varying degrees of autonomy making decisions without direct human intervention in vital sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and finance traditional tort rules, historically based on human error, face unprecedented challenges. The central research questions are: to what extent can current civil liability frameworks accommodate damages resulting from algorithmic decision-making, and what legal reforms are needed to bridge the resulting liability gap? The study reveals that liability based on fault is insufficient when there is no clear human error behind an AI system's autonomous decision. The principles of joint and several liability presuppose a legal relationship between two persons, which cannot be established with a non-legal entity. The absolute liability of the custodian of things (garde des choses), as stipulated in Article (132) of the Saudi Civil Transactions Law and Article (1242) of the French Civil Code, provides the most viable traditional basis, but it faces difficulties in defining the custodian and the concept of effective control over autonomous systems. Product liability, significantly strengthened by the revised EU Directive on Product Liability (2024/2853), which now explicitly includes software, represents a promising complementary approach. From an Islamic legal perspective, the study identifies the fundamental principles of liability (daman/liability) that provide a solid jurisprudential foundation, particularly the principle that aggression (contagion) entails liability regardless of intent, and the standard model of liability for the actions of animals, which shares structural similarities with autonomous AI systems. This study proposes a comprehensive legislative framework for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, comprising six pillars: classifying AI systems based on risk, joint and several liability among stakeholders, the rebuttable presumption of causation, mandatory transparency, mandatory insurance for high-risk AI systems, and a supplementary compensation fund. These recommendations aim to strike a balance between protecting victims and fostering innovation, aligning with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom's designation of 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence. Files 823.5191-OJS Ready final 1.pdf Files (774.5 kB) Name Size Download all 823.5191-OJS Ready final 1.pdf md5:0a8e6d6f039b043d9a923505bdab979b 774.5 kB Preview Download 504 Views 70 Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 504 504 Downloads Total downloads 70 70 Data volume Total data volume 62.3 MB 62.3 MB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords Artificial Intelligence; Civil Liability; Tort Law; Autonomous Decisions; Algorithmic Opacity; Saudi Civil Transactions Law; French Civil Law; EU AI Law; Product Liability; Islamic Jurisprudence; Safety; Mandatory Insurance. Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20068083 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20068083) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.20068083.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20068083 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20068083"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.20068083.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.20068083.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20068083 Resource type Journal article Publisher Zenodo Published in SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, 12(2.1), ISSN: 2407-9529, 2026. Rights License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited. Read more Citation Export Technical metadata Created May 7, 2026 Modified May 14, 2026 Jump up About About Policies Infrastructure Principles Projects Roadmap Contact Blog Blog Support Help FAQ Developers REST API OAI-PMH Contribute GitHub Donate Funded by Powered by CERN Data Centre & InvenioRDM Status Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms of Use This site uses cookies. Find out more on how we use cookies Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies

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