The International Duty to Assist People in Distress at Sea in the Era of Unmanned Navigation: No Place for People On Board

In the last decade, the first Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) have been tested and produced by private companies. The growing use of unmanned vessels seriously challenges the development of the whole international legal framework concerning navigation. In particular, these new means of maritime transport impose a deep reflection on their capability to concretely assist people in distress at sea. The present paper analyses how public international rules on rendering assistance at sea adapt to the utilization of MASS. Following a brief introduction, this work starts with a description of the rise of the technology of automation and control in the maritime field, in order to highlight the principal elements of novelty introduced by the use of MASS in the field of maritime transport. Subsequently, it reports and analyze the international rules regulating the duty over States of rendering assistance to people in distress at sea. In the third paragraph, the script deals with the issues rising from the application of the above-mentioned norms to the use of unmanned ships. More precisely, it discusses whether the absence of a master on board precludes the operability of these norms to the use of MASS, and, subsequently, which kind of assistance shall be effectively provided by ships whose design is not conceived to host persons on board. Finally, the last pages of this work provide conclusive reasoning emerged from the legal analysis previously exposed, also by addressing the relevance of economic interests in the definition of the level of assistance required by law