Abstract
Maritime history dates back thousands of years, and one constant throughout this time has been that ships plying the oceans have people aboard. With the appearance of ships without onboard crew on our seascape, this certainty has come to an end. Yet, rules aimed at ensuring maritime security are firmly based on the assumption that perpetrators act from onboard the offender ship and that a human–human encounter between enforcers and suspects at sea takes place, with the possibility for direct interaction and communication as well as an exchange of physical documentation. This chapter probes the consequences that the use of unmanned ships to compromise maritime security entails for the continued applicability and relevance of rules designed to prevent and suppress crime at sea. It concludes that the need for regulatory steps is evident. While a formal amendment of relevant treaties, such as the UNCLOS, the Vienna Convention (1988) and the SUA Conventions (1988, 2005), seems out of sight, the turn to unmanned ships will more likely be accommodated through informal law—at least for the time being.
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Petrig, A. (2023). Maritime Security in the Age of Autonomous Ships. In: Johansson, T.M., Fernández, J.E., Dalaklis, D., Pastra, A., Skinner, J.A. (eds) Autonomous Vessels in Maritime Affairs. Studies in National Governance and Emerging Technologies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24740-8_5
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