Classification of Maritime Piracy in the Setting of Autonomous Navigation

The paper examines the specifics of classifying maritime piracy as a criminal offense in the context of using sea vessels with a high level of autonomy. The object of the study is public relations that develop regarding the application of the criminal law norm on liability for piracy in attacks on autonomous marine surface vessels. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the classification of the said crime if it is committed through an attack on unmanned sea vessels, as well as the applicability of the relevant norm of criminal law to this act. Based on the criminal legal analysis of the norm of criminal law, the author investigates the possibility of the actual implementation of the elements of piracy in the context of an attack on sea vessels of various levels of autonomy. Using the method of modeling situations of pirate attacks on autonomous vessels, a hypothesis was put forward about the impossibility of classifying such acts when they are committed against vessels controlled entirely remotely (in the absence of crew members on board), as well as those controlled using artificial intelligence technologies. The above conclusion, with some reservations, confirms the thesis explored in the work that the introduction of autonomous navigation technologies into maritime practice will reduce the number of acts of pirate attacks. However, it is concluded that the achievement of such a result will mainly be associated with the impossibility to classify such committed acts as piracy due to the actual absence of some mandatory legal elements of piracy enshrined in legislation.

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