Marine insurance revisited under the advent of unmanned ships

Abstract

From e-navigation to Marine Autonomous Systems, leading-edge technologies in the shipping industry are developing at a fast pace, and the trend is likely to continue. Owing to new opportunities opened up by artificial intelligence, the unmanned marine ships or vehicles (“UMVs”) are now within our sights. UMVs are no longer a remote possibility, as they have already been turned into a credible belief shared by many scholars, shipping companies, shipowners and other stakeholders.

UMVs are the consequences of current technologies development applied to the shipping industry. This type of vessels are so cutting-edge that they face actually organizational restrictions rather than technical ones. UMVs have not been specifically addressed by any international rules or regulations so far.

The main objective of this thesis is to identify gaps between existing terms of marine insurance policy, the legal framework, and the advent of UMVs. After case studies and legal analysis, recommendations will be put forward on what amendments should be imposed on the existing insurance policies and the legal regimes to keep up to date with this dynamic development of marine technology. The main question that this policy-oriented thesis going to answer is: Whether existing marine insurance policies can in principle still be effective, what amendment or expansion current marine insurance articles require and further, what new policies may need to be developed under the advent of UMVs. Moreover, this thesis plans to answer some minor questions relating to the major one. Furthermore, this thesis will look into the legal issues concerning UMVs in the marine insurance section. Insurance provides a solid foundation for the growth of shipping industry by dispersing risks. Therefore, examining the advent of unmanned ships under the law of marine insurance is of great significance. In this thesis, efforts have been made to current law to the traits that the UMVs may have, and to explore whether the maritime law would still be in principle capable with UMVs. This has been achieved by either demonstrating that the UMV would be analogous to a manned vessel in which there would be no need for marine insurance to change, or by putting forward an interpretation of the insurance policies capable of embracing the unmanned situation. On the other hand, if it is unlikely, the analysis then indicates that amendments to current maritime law would be needed in order to legally use UMVs. This thesis is based on comprehensive analysis of international legal regimes relating to marine insurance. In addition, cases taken from international legal regimes are raised, like the carriage of goods by the sea. This thesis will end with conclusions of this study, recommendations for UMVs management under marine insurance, limitations and potential future study areas.