On the Issue of the Legal Status of the Marine Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

The modern stage of world civilization development is characterized by a breakthrough in the scientific and technological sphere. Currently, national governments are betting on the use of unmanned navigation in the modern maritime industry. However, the Central problem here is the absence of appropriate legal operation of unmanned marine vehicles in terms of the established global ocean legal regime leading to the inevitable conflicts between subjects of international law.Based on the legal norm analysis of international and national maritime legislation, the author concludes that it is necessary to unify the terminology and conceptual apparatus governing the legal status and operation of ships without crews in various categories of maritime spaces, in order to resolve the dialectical contradiction that arises in the context of the evolutional transition from traditional navigation to unmanned navigation technologies.

Keywords

• merchant shipping
• ship
• warship
• autonomous vessels
• legal status