Autonomous ships in maritime law

Nowadays, the exponential growth in technological advances in the shipping industry appears to justify the proposition of that autonomous merchant ships and traditional ones are on the eve of an era in which they will start sailing together in the seas. Nonetheless, since both national and international regulations are designed taking into consideration the human element on board, the introduction of autonomous ships will bring many discussions. In this study, both remotely controlled (MASS-3) and fully autonomous ships (MASS-4) have been scrutinized within the scope of existing national and international legal regulations. This study consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, after explaining the concept of autonomous ship and autonomous ship projects, whether or not such ships could be considered as a ship within the scope of national and international regulations has been discussed. Afterwards, the provisions of Turkish Commercial Code (TCC) in respect of port of registry, register of ship, pilotage and the shipowner's liability for the fault of the seafarers have been assessed in the sense of autonomous shipping. In the second chapter, the carrier's duty to provide a seaworthy ship in autonomous ships has been evaluated within the scope the Hague/Hague-Visby Rules (HR/HVR), the Hamburg Rules, the Rotterdam Rules and the TCC. In this chapter, firstly, the concept of seaworthiness, its elements and the obligation of the carrier to provide a seaworthy ship have been thoroughly scrutinized. Subsequently, the obligation of seaworthiness has been discussed within the scope of the relevant provisions of the aforementioned conventions and the TCC. In the third chapter, the relevant provisions of UNCLOS, MARPOL 73/78, SOLAS, COLREGS and STCW conventions, which appear to pose a hurdle to autonomous ship operations at first glance, have been examined in the light of different views in the doctrine and the work of the Comité Maritime International (CMI). Considering all of these, in the conclusion section, the suggestions and final words have been submitted as to whether the relevant provisions of the aforementioned conventions should be broadly interpreted to cover autonomous ships or the establishment of an Autonomous Ship Code specifically for such ships would be more appropriate.