IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i12p7369-d840289.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Operation of Unmanned Ships under Current International Maritime Law

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Boviatsis

    (Department of Maritime Studies, University of Piraeus, 185 34 Pireas, Greece)

  • George Vlachos

    (Department of Maritime Studies, University of Piraeus, 185 34 Pireas, Greece)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the current international maritime legislative framework and assess its relevance in sustaining the operations of unmanned ships while addressing the issue of liability from system malfunctions. The paper initially explores the legal definition of a ship and evaluates whether the existence of an on-board crew is an integral part of the definition. Subsequently, the analysis continues with assessing the legal implications and challenges for the sustainable operation of unmanned ships, such as the governing flag state legislation that defines liability parameters, taking into consideration the existing levels of vessel automation. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the contractual issues and potential stakeholder liability related to governing a flag state. In addition, the potential transfer of liability from the ship operators to manufacturers as pertains to unmanned ship operation is also addressed. The concluding remarks suggest that unmanned ship operation is sustainable under the current international maritime legislative framework; however, the current legislation should be considered as a baseline from which specific legislation for the operation of unmanned ships can be drawn. The methodology utilised for this paper is based on the legal doctrine.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Boviatsis & George Vlachos, 2022. "Sustainable Operation of Unmanned Ships under Current International Maritime Law," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7369-:d:840289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7369/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7369/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hadi Ghaderi, 2019. "Autonomous technologies in short sea shipping: trends, feasibility and implications," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 152-173, January.
    2. Xing, Wangwang & Zhu, Ling, 2021. "A functional approach to reassessing the legal status and navigational rights of ships and ship-shaped structures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 120-130.
    3. Mehdi Poornikoo & Kjell Ivar Øvergård, 2022. "Levels of automation in maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS): a fuzzy logic approach," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 278-301, June.
    4. Yadong Wang & Qiang Meng, 2019. "Integrated method for forecasting container slot booking in intercontinental liner shipping service," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 653-674, September.
    5. Guo, Liquan & Yang, Dong & Yang, Zhongzhen, 2018. "Port integration method in multi-port regions (MPRs) based on the maximal social welfare of the external transport system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 243-257.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dionysios Polemis & Michael Boviatsis & Stefanos Chatzinikolaou, 2023. "Assessing the Sustainability of the Most Prominent Type of Marine Diesel Engines under the Implementation of the EEXI and CII Regulations," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-23, August.
    2. Krzysztof Wróbel & Mateusz Gil & Yamin Huang & Ryszard Wawruch, 2022. "The Vagueness of COLREG versus Collision Avoidance Techniques—A Discussion on the Current State and Future Challenges Concerning the Operation of Autonomous Ships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Euchi, Jalel & Kallel, Ahmed, 2021. "Internalization of external congestion and CO2emissions costs related to road transport: The case of Tunisia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Ziaul Haque Munim & Hercules Haralambides, 2022. "Advances in maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) in merchant shipping," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 181-188, June.
    3. Marco Ferretti & Ugo Fiore & Francesca Perla & Marcello Risitano & Salvatore Scognamiglio, 2022. "Deep Learning Forecasting for Supporting Terminal Operators in Port Business Development," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Feng, Hongxiang & Grifoll, Manel & Yang, Zhongzhen & Zheng, Pengjun & Martin-Mallofre, Agustí, 2020. "Visualization of container throughput evolution of the Yangtze River Delta multi-port system: the ternary diagram method," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Sun, Xuting & Chung, Sai-Ho & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing & Ma, Hoi Lam, 2020. "Combating lead-time uncertainty in global supply chain's shipment-assignment: Is it wise to be risk-averse?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 406-434.
    6. Hongchu Yu & Zheng Guo & Lei Xu, 2025. "Research on Port Competitiveness Dynamics in China Under the Background of Free Trade Zone and Port Integration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-33, June.
    7. Gu, Yuyun & Wang, Yadong & Wang, Tingsong, 2025. "An approximate dynamic programming approach to dynamic slot allocation of spot containers with random arrivals, cancellations, and no-shows," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    8. Xue Li & Kum Fai Yuen, 2022. "Autonomous ships: A study of critical success factors," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 228-254, June.
    9. Michael F. Gorman & John-Paul Clarke & René Koster & Michael Hewitt & Debjit Roy & Mei Zhang, 2023. "Emerging practices and research issues for big data analytics in freight transportation," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(1), pages 28-60, March.
    10. Elnaz Irannezhad, 2020. "The Architectural Design Requirements of a Blockchain-Based Port Community System," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-31, November.
    11. Konstantinos Poulis & Gregorios C. Galanakis & Gregory T. Triantafillou & Efthimios Poulis, 2020. "Value migration: digitalization of shipping as a mechanism of industry dethronement," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    12. Håkon Osland Sandvik & David Sjödin & Thomas Brekke & Vinit Parida, 2022. "Inherent paradoxes in the shift to autonomous solutions provision: a multilevel investigation of the shipping industry," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 16(2), pages 227-255, June.
    13. Hanghang Zhu & Zhi Pei, 2023. "Two-Stage Robust Liner Container Booking with Uncertain Customer Demand," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, April.
    14. Li, Xue & Oh, Poong & Zhou, Yusheng & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2023. "Operational risk identification of maritime surface autonomous ship: A network analysis approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 1-14.
    15. Wang, Tingsong & Meng, Qiang & Wang, Shuaian & Qu, Xiaobo, 2021. "A two-stage stochastic nonlinear integer-programming model for slot allocation of a liner container shipping service," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 143-160.
    16. Li, Wenjie & Asadabadi, Ali & Miller-Hooks, Elise, 2022. "Enhancing resilience through port coalitions in maritime freight networks," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1-23.
    17. Liang, Jinpeng & Li, Liming & Zheng, Jianfeng & Tan, Zhijia, 2023. "Service-oriented container slot allocation policy under stochastic demand," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Kjetil Fagerholt & Kap Hwan Kim & Qiang Meng & Julio César Góez & Frank Meisel & Magnus Stålhane, 2019. "Analytics and models for maritime logistics and systems," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 563-566, September.
    19. Kurt, Ismail & Aymelek, Murat, 2024. "Operational adaptation of ports with maritime autonomous surface ships," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 1-10.
    20. Ma, Qifei & Jia, Peng & She, Xinran & Haralambides, Hercules & Kuang, Haibo, 2021. "Port integration and regional economic development: Lessons from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 430-439.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7369-:d:840289. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.