Review considers autonomous ships within existing IMO regulations

SMMI members Robert Veal and Professor Michael Tsimplis of the Institute of Maritime Law have had their paper “The integration of unmanned ships into the lex maritima” published in the prestigious Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly ([2017] LMCLQ 303) .

The paper considers the extent to which unmanned and autonomous ships fall within the existing IMO regulatory framework before critically assessing the ability of such ships and their operators to comply with its exacting requirements. The paper is the first detailed review of the salient obligations under UNCLOS, SOLAS, COLREGS, the STCW as well as domestic shipping law in the context of unmanned shipping.

The paper is available to ilaw subscribers here and will be presented at the forthcoming IML Conference “Focus on Excellence” on 26 June at Norton Rose, London. For more information, see here.