Autonomous Vessels In Maritime Affairs

This book examines law and governance implications in relation to maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS). Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, it focuses on a wide array of timely, topical and thorny issues, including naval warfare and security, seaworthiness and techno-regulatory assessments, global environmental change, autonomous passenger transportation, as well as liability and insurance. It also considers selected national and regional developments. The book provides an insight into the role of innovation-diplomacy as the driving force that could expedite the transition from automation to autonomy. After navigating through the complex law and governance landscape, it concludes by assessing critical findings for further consideration. The book will appeal to scholars and students of maritime technology, law and governance. Chapter 11 and Chapter 18 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Interest in autonomous ships has grown exponentially over the past few years. Whereas a few years ago, the prospect of unmanned and autonomous vessels sailing on the seas was considered unrealistic, the debate now centers on when and in what format and pace the development will take place. Law has a key role to play in this development and legal obstacles are often singled out as principal barriers to the rapid introduction of new technologies in shipping. Within a few years, autonomous ships have turned from a non-issue to one of the main regulatory topics being addressed by the International Maritime Organization. However, the regulatory discussion is still in its infancy, and while many new questions have been raised, few answers have been provided to them to date. Increased automation of tasks that have traditionally been undertaken by ships' crews raises interesting legal questions across the whole spectrum of maritime law. The first of its kind, this book explores the issue of autonomous ships from a wide range of legal perspectives, including both private law and public law at international and national level, making available cutting-edge research which will be of significant interest to researchers in maritime law. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 license.

Unmanned ships and autonomous ships are quickly becoming a reality, making shipping safer and more efficient. However, traditional tasks and functions are becoming blurred as new technology changes how the unique needs of different sectors are met. In addition to large vessels dedicated to the transport of goods and cargos across the oceans, major efforts are underway towards the automation of small coastal shipping that includes ferries, tugboats, supply and service vessels, and barges. Automated vehicles are also replacing conventional ships for inspecting and servicing pipelines, drilling platforms, wind farms and other offshore installations. Automated shipping is explored in terms of economics, technology, safety and the environment under the broad themes of ship design and engineering, command and control, navigation, communications, security, regulatory issues, and training. This includes initiatives for autonomous shipping as well as civilian implications of military ship automation programs. This book is primarily for maritime professionals, regulatory authorities, insurers, and environmental groups. It also suits undergraduate students involved in deck officer training, and graduate students and academics involved in research in ship design, operations and management.

In Ocean Law and Policy: Twenty Years of Development under the UNCLOS Regime, experts from fourteen countries present nineteen papers that provide insightful analyses of these wide-ranging issues that form the emerging new context of UNCLOS as a keystone to a working regime system.

This reprint is a printed edition of the Special Issue on Maritime Autonomous Vessels that was published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. It contains an editorial and 17 peer-reviewed research studies in the field of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), and underwater gliders, to name a few. The main goal of this reprint is to address key challenges, thereby promoting research on marine autonomous ships. There are many topics on autonomous vessels involved in this reprint, for instance, automatic control, manoeuvrability, collision avoidance, ship target identification, motion planning, and buckling analysis.

This book provides a response to the unexpected challenges imposed on every aspect of today’s maritime business. All chapters of this book are concerned with the single challenge facing the maritime business world – that is, uncertainty. Each chapter deals with a specific area of the maritime business community in an effort to better understand the complicated markets, to seek for a solution of economic or financial sustainability under the pressure of climate changes, to discuss technology as an option for the future, and finally to show how to utilise the big data set for better informed decision- and policymaking that used to be unfeasible in terms of scale and capacity. It is hoped that all those endeavours are considered as the first small step towards practically transforming the industry in line with Schumpeter (1943) as well as academically changing a paradigm of thinking and scientific discovery in line with Kuhn (2012), so that the maritime industry is better informed and prepared, and can greatly contributing to human lives.

This book provides valuable insights into various contemporary issues in public and private maritime law, including interdisciplinary aspects. The public law topics addressed include public international law and law of the sea, while a variety of private law topics are explored, e.g. commercial maritime law, conflict of laws, and new developments in the application of advanced technologies to maritime law issues. In addition, the book highlights current and topical discussions at international maritime forums such as the International Maritime Organization on regulatory and private law matters within the domain of marine environmental law, the law respecting seafarers’ affairs and maritime pedagogics, maritime security, comparative law in the maritime field, trade law, recent case law analysis, taxation law in the maritime context, maritime arbitration, carriage of passengers, port law, and limitation of liability.

Cooperation and Engagement in the Asia-Pacific Region provides valuable insight into a region that encompasses many important maritime regions, and harbors promising opportunities for maritime cooperation and engagement.