Research On Legal Status Of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles In Public International Law

The history of UUV is not long,only a few decades.It caught the world's attention for the first time because of a hydrogen bomb crisis in the United States.In the case that the bathyscaph could not complete the hydrogen bomb salvage mission,the unmanned submersible completed the mission well.In 2016,a hot event about UUV occurred in the South China Sea.The Chinese Navy discovered an unknown device near Huangyan Island.They captured and identified the device,and found that the device was an UUV of the United States.After that,China and the United States launched a debate on the basis of international law for this case.The first chapter is mainly about the overview of UUV,and introduces the invention,development and types of unmanned submersibles.At the beginning of the development of the UUV,only some simple auxiliary work was carried out,and it was mainly manual operation.But then its development direction has exceeded everyone's expectations and has become a platform for carrying out diverse tasks.From the beginning of development,the UUV has developed from a single function and cumbersome operation to today's automation,modularization and artificial intelligence.It is even called the “new killer” of the modern marine military power.The development of UUV can be divided into three main stages.The first stageis the 60 s to the 90 s of the 20 th century.This stage can be considered as the basic stage of the development of UUV.The UUV has since entered the stage of history.However,the UUV at this stage mainly rely on manual operation,and the functions are relatively simple.It is not an important research object of the world's military powers.The second stage is the exploration of the development of UUV from the late1990 s to the beginning of the 21 st century.The development of UUV at this stage is largely due to the advancement of computer technology and communication technology.These breakthroughs in hardware and software technology have greatly promoted various military and civilian equipment update.The third stage of the development of UUV is from the beginning of the 21 st century to today,which is the prosperous stage of UUV.At this stage,the development of UUV has reached an unprecedented speed,and the types and functions have become more diverse.It is also at this stage that UUV have become an important research target for military powers.The United States has conducted a very strong research on UUV and has developed a number of development plans for UUV,including the UUV master plan(2000),and the UUV master plan(2004)and the UUV master plan(2011).It can be seen from the analysis of the development planning of UUV in the United States that the development speed of UUV in the United States is getting faster and faster,the development planning is becoming more and more refined,and the scale of development is getting larger and larger.There are many different views on the legal status of UUV in the world.Some people think that UUV should enjoy the same legal status as ships.Some views hold that UV should enjoy the same legal status as submarines.Some people think that an UUV can neither be identified as a ship nor a submarine,but should be regulated as a separate object.There is also a view that the legal status of UUV should be put on hold and should not be clarified for the time being.The existing legal status documents for UUV mainly include domestic law and international law.Although many laws regulate the legal status of UUV,and the legal status can be found in some legal documents through expanded interpretation and semantic interpretation,but these legal status are relatively vague,not clear enough,and are prone to disputes.Through the analysis of the existing regulatory documents on the legal status of UUV,the legal source of the legal status of UUV can be found to the greatest extent possible.There are several ways to regulate the legal status of UUV: the first is to regulate by statutory law,which includes the formulation of special international treaties or the revision of existing treaties,or the adjustment of domestic laws.The second is to regulate through international judgments and resolutions,including UN Security Council resolutions and UN General Assembly resolutions.However,it is very difficult to reach a resolution of the Security Council.It is easier to reach a resolution of the UN General Assembly.At the same time,because of the extensiveness of participating countries,it is also a better way to regulate the legal status of UUV.The third is to adjust through the way of international customary law,but the adjustment of international customary law takes a long time.During this time,it is very unfavorable for safeguarding China's maritime rights and reducing international conflicts.