State of the Art
Definition
The level of technical knowledge and practice available at the time of design or construction, used in some jurisdictions as a defence against claims that a product or structure should have incorporated later-developed safety features.
- Definition
- Technical knowledge and practice available at time of design
- Legal use
- Defence against claims of missing later safety features
- Field
- Engineering failure analysis
- Jurisdictional variation
- Recognised in some jurisdictions, not universally
Common questions
How is a state-of-the-art defence different from a standard-of-care argument?+
State-of-the-art focuses narrowly on whether the specific technology or safety feature existed and was practically available at the time, while standard of care asks more broadly whether a reasonably competent professional would have acted differently given everything known at the time.
Can a product still be found defective if it met the state of the art at the time it was made?+
In jurisdictions that recognise the defence, meeting the state of the art at the time of manufacture can bar or limit liability, but this varies by jurisdiction and by whether the claim is framed as negligence versus strict product liability.
Related terms
- Mandatory Code
- A standard incorporated by reference into statute or regulation, such that violation constitutes a legal breach and may support negligence per se...
- Negligence per Se
- A common law doctrine under which violation of a statute or mandatory code is treated as automatic breach of the duty of...
- NFPA 921
- US National Fire Protection Association Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations. The internationally accepted methodology Indian fire investigators and SFSL fire divisions...
- Standard of Care
- The level of skill, knowledge, and practice that a reasonably competent engineer in the same discipline and jurisdiction would have exercised under...
- Voluntary Standard
- A consensus document representing best practice at the time of publication, departure from which is relevant but not conclusive evidence of negligence....