Seaworthiness and autonomous ships: Legal implications in the 21st century

This paper aims to analyse the doctrine of seaworthiness and how the doctrine applies to autonomous ships. Section 39 of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 imposed an implied warranty of seaworthiness for every voyage policy. Case laws in the United Kingdom and Australia indicate that the doctrine has remained uncontroversial in the past 200 years. The operation of autonomous ships in the near future, however, may pose a challenge to the said doctrine. Autonomous ships no longer require crew members to be on board, and the operation of the ships may be performed by computers instead of human beings, but the said doctrine is inadequate to cover legal liabilities that may arise from on-shore ship operation and Artificial Intelligence. For the future operation of autonomous ships, the authors suggest that a reformulation is needed for the said doctrine.