Ethical, societal and legal issues are rising jointly with the development of autonomous robotic systems immersed into human society. This work focuses on legal aspects and intends to raise the awareness of engineers and researchers in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence with applications to embedded autonomous systems, cyber-physical systems and self-organizing systems. The paper discusses in detail some recent legal innovations in these fields. Two questions are specifically addressed: how does the lawyer apprehend artificial intelligence and robotics? Which are the existing rules and the necessary legal innovations coming in the next years?