Vessel Autonomy and the Nigerian Maritime Legal Framewor: Lessons from Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom
Keywords:
Autonomous Surface Ships, Vessel Classifications, Remote Operations, manning.Abstract
The advent of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) signifies a transformative era in global maritime commerce and also poses regulatory challenges within the existing legal frameworks in most countries. This article therefore examines the issues of vessel classification, manning and remote operation centers on the operations of autonomous vessel within the existing legal framework in Nigeria. The objective of this study is to determine the adequacy or otherwise of the existing legal framework on vessel operation in Nigeria having regard to the emergence of autonomous surface ships. This article provides an extensive doctrinal and comparative analysis of the regulatory environments governing MASS in Nigeria, Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom. It demonstrates that while Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom have actively adopted performance-based, functional equivalence models to integrate autonomous technologies, Nigeria remains tethered to a human-centric legislative paradigm. Through an examination of vessels classification, manning and remote operation centers, this work identifies the critical regulatory deficiencies in the extant regulatory framework in Nigerian. The analysis argues that for Nigeria to remain globally competitive and safe, it must transition toward a flexible regulatory structure that explicitly incorporates remote operations and algorithmic decision making.
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