A Study On Tortious Liability For Collison Involving Unmanned Ships

At present,a new direction has emerged in the development of ships industry.All countries in the world are actively researching and developing unmanned ships.The most significant feature of unmanned ships is that there are no personnel on the ship,which is also the biggest difference between unmanned ships and traditional ships.Based on the differences between unmanned ships and traditional ships,a series of issues such as the identification of tort liability for collision infringement accidents of unmanned ships in the course of navigation need to be re-identified,and the application of the collosion convention after collision accident also needs to be re-evaluated.On the basis of recognizing the legal nature of unmanned ships,this paper discusses and analyzes the causes of collision tort accident,the subject of collision tort liability,the applicable imputation principle and the division of liability.The first chapter is an ’overview of the basic issues of tort liability in unmanned ship collision.Since unmanned ships are different from traditional ships,it is necessary to make a special analysis on the legal nature of unmanned ships and the application of existing convention before studying the tort liability of unmanned ships collision.First,the legal nature of unmanned ships needs to be made clear.By comparing and analyzing the meaning of ships in international conventions and domestic laws of each country,discussing whether unmanned ships are ships.Secondly,on the basis of classification of unmanned ships,it is clear whether the operators under the remote control of unmanned ships are captains and crew.Thirdly,on the basis of summarizing the characteristics of the tort of unmanned ships collision,the particularity of the application of the convention under the tort of unmnanned ships collision is analyzed.The second chapter is to identify the tort of unmanned ships collision.Firstly,the definition of tort is clarified,and the types of tort are discussed based on the characteristics of unmanned ships collision.Secondly,it is to specify the negligence of the tort feasor.Negligence under the tort of collision of unmanned ships includes negligence of remote control of unmanned ships,negligence of system manufacturer,negligence of management of unmanned ships and negligence of owner of-unmanned ships.Chapter three is the identification of the subject of liability under the tort of unmanned ships collision.For unmanned ships with certain autonomous initiative,it is an important issue to discuss whether to give them the status of "human".Based on the theory of ship personification,this paper analyzes whether the unmanned ships can be personified and whether it can be endowed with legal subject status.In addition,the identification of the subject of liability should first determine the principle of identification of the subject of liability,referring to the principle of identification of the subject of tort liability for ship collision and,combining with the characteristics of unmanned,ships,to determine the principle of identification of the subject of liability under the unmanned ships collision.According to the principle of identification of the subject of liability,the owner and charterer of the unmanned ships are finally identified as the subject of liability.The fourth chapter is to explore the relevant issues under the liability of unmanned ship collision,including the principle of imputation and division of liability under the tort of unmanned ships collision.Firstly,it is.a general overview of the theoretical system of imputation principle,on which the application of imputation principle under the tort of unmanned ships collision is clarified.Secondly,according to the different ways of tort of unmanned ships collision,the division of liability is discussed.This part mainly introduces how to undertake and assign the liability under unilateral negligence collision tort,mutual negligence collision tort and no negligence collision tort.