Re: Ada, 1992, and Product Responsibility

[billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 )]

From horst@pcsbst.UUCP (horst):
> In the European Market we expect to have laws in 1992 that resemble the
> American Laws of Product Responsibility. As far as I know, those can make
> an implementor responsible for any consequences of using an implementation
> language which is not considered the best choice. And there are strong
> signals that Ada will be the default 'best choice' for lawyers. Is this
> not true for the US?

   The US is going to be behind Europe in many ways once the European
   integration process has completed; the standardization of product
   regulations in Europe will be considerably greater than that which
   exists in the US, for example -- here there are still many different
   regulation systems which vary from state to state (example: insurance),
   and there is no real effort underway to eliminate all the inconsistencies.

   It will probably take a decade or so for the US to catch up, both in
   terms of using Ada and in terms of standardizing its marketplace.  As
   for the product responsibility, I don't think the US lawyers have yet
   discovered this particular approach to demonstrating negligence.
 
   (Cross-posted to misc.legal for further discussion)


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu