Posted: March 4th, 2024
The Development of New Maritime Law to Address Emerging Issues
The Development of New Maritime Law to Address Emerging Issues
1. Introduction
Maritime law has been in existence for hundreds of years, long before the United States was established as a country. The law of the sea is a body of public international law that governs the rights and duties of nations in relation to the marine environment, including the oceans. Emerging issues that need to be addressed in maritime law include cybercrime and the advent of new technology in the industry, such as drone shipping. Addressing these emerging issues is very important in the modern world and has various implications in maritime law. Unlike the laws of the United States, which are created, interpreted, and enforced by different branches of government, international law regarding the sea is created by countries, in the form of treaties, which are then agreed to and ratified by administrations of those countries. This area of law is thought to have started with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, and has a long and varied history in the United States and elsewhere. Changes at sea, including the development of new technology, have often necessitated significant alterations to the regulatory schemes for maritime law. For example, when new areas of law open up with the development of something never seen before – as with cybercrime and drones in the maritime industry – legislators must think about how to adapt the law to cover such new phenomena. The introduction of the law to new and emerging technologies can be a slow and difficult process, not least because the technology itself can be constantly changing. Advancements in the industry, such as the rise of unmanned vessels and digitization in operations, have led to a new era in maritime law. It is for this reason maritime law must also be nimble and open to change, so as to address the evolving concerns of the maritime industry.
1.1 Background of Maritime Law
Historically, maritime law developed out of the need to resolve disputes arising from trade and shipping. Over the years, maritime law has become a complex and codified set of rules that govern private international business or other transactions involving ships, cargoes, and the sea. Because contracts involving maritime activities can involve parties from different countries, a body of law was established to provide standards that would be acceptable to all nations. This is why maritime law is based on the principal that the nations of the world will act in good faith when vessels from another country or international waters are involved and will recognize the jurisdiction and authority of all other countries. In reality, however, ships can operate under a “flag of convenience” so that shipping companies can avoid national laws and take advantage of lower taxes, less stringent safety regulations, and cheaper labor costs. The consequences of this in terms of personal injury and pollution claims have made discussion about reform of maritime law an important area of academic research. On a practical level, the number and diversity of transnational business disputes involving the maritime industry are growing and, as a consequence, new maritime laws have evolved in response to the changing needs of the industry. Such changes reflect wider trends in international law, including the shift from state-based legal systems to the development of global governance and interaction and the use of information and communication technologies in resolving legal problems.
1.2 Significance of Addressing Emerging Issues
Maritime law, also known as admiralty law, is a body of laws, conventions, and treaties that govern private maritime business and other nautical matters, such as shipping or offenses occurring on open water. It covers a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from the regulation of ships and shipping to marine commerce and marine navigation. The oceans are critical to our transportation needs, and technologies have developed over time. In the field of marine technology, there have been new and important emerging issues. It is generally believed among experts in maritime law that it needs to become more specialized, particularly in facing up to the challenges of emerging issues. Therefore, the development of new maritime law to address emerging issues is very important. The reasons for the growth in the importance of marine technology have signified the inevitability of this new emerging law. In modernizing and updating our curriculum in this specialization, these aspects will have to be taken into account. This would also have an impact on the training of professionals and on the ways in which the courts will be called upon to use their specialist knowledge in the new specialized world of maritime law. So far, there have been many significant attempts for the emergence of this new body of law. The technology parks and science, technology research centers, and specialist expertise, both in law and in marine technology, are expected to offer valuable inputs into this ongoing modernization process of maritime law. It is expected that in the near future, maritime lawyers will no longer remain as generalists, and they will be in a position to provide advice and skills on the basis of this new developing body of law. With the advance of science and technology, international funding support, and London’s status as one of the leading international maritime centers, point to the city as a vanguard of this exciting and modern transformation of maritime law.
2. Cybercrime in Maritime Law