109 Iowa L. Rev. Online 1 (2023)

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Abstract

Danaya Wright and Ethan Moore’s Article, DARC Matters: Repurposing Nineteenth-Century Property Law for the Twenty-First Century, is a valuable contribution to a growing body of legal academic literature focused on property law obstacles to the deployment of commercial drone technologies. Wright and Moore rightly acknowledge landowners’ long-held rights to exclude objects from the low airspace immediately above their land–rights that some major retailers have aggressively sought to weaken in recent years to facilitate drone delivery services. The Article is probably overly optimistic in its suggestion that using airspace above existing railroad and utility easements is “the most feasible path” to unleashing widespread drone delivery services in the United States. Still, the Article affirms landowners’ airspace exclusion rights and highlights the potential to leverage existing easement rights in the drone age–observations that are likely to become increasingly relevant as drone technologies continue to advance in the coming years.