The regulation of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) will need to redefine the traditional legal and conceptual categories of the law of the sea, whose rules were adopted over the basis that ships were manned by a master and crew on board. An evolutionary interpretation of UNCLOS allows to justifiy that the IMO endeavours to regulate the operation of MASS. Within this framework, the IMO has completed an exploratory study, in which it adopted a preliminary definition of autonomous ships and identified three high-priority themes: the meaning of the terms master, crew, or responsible person; the consideration of the remote-control station or centre; and the possibility to designate remote operators as seafarers. Subsequently, the IMO established in 2022 a workplan to adopt a goal-based non-mandatory MASS Code in 2024 and a mandatory Code in 2025. Following the exploratory study and th...

This article reviews the processes of consolidation of the principle of legality and of the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in international criminal law from a historical perspective. It starts with the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945 and then traces the development of these two processes side-by-side: the enshrinement of the principle of legality in a series of universal treaties protecting human rights between the 1960s and the 1980s and the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in the Statutes for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

This article reviews the processes of consolidation of the principle of legality and of the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in international criminal law from a historical perspective. It starts with the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945 and then traces the development of these two processes side-by-side: the enshrinement of the principle of legality in a series of universal treaties protecting human rights between the 1960s and the 1980s and the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in the Statutes for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The regulation of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) will need to redefine the traditional legal and conceptual categories of the law of the sea, whose rules were adopted over the basis that ships were manned by a master and crew on board.An evolutionary interpretation of UNCLOS allows to justifiy that the IMO endeavours to regulate the operation of MASS. Within this framework, the IMO has completed an exploratory study, in which it adopted a preliminary definition of autonomous ships and identified three high-priority themes: the meaning of the terms master, crew, or responsible person; the consideration of the remote-control station or centre; and the possibility to designate remote operators as seafarers. Subsequently, the IMO established in 2022 a workplan to adopt a goal-based non-mandatory MASS Code in 2024 and a mandatory Code in 2025.Following the exploratory study and the ...

This article reviews the processes of consolidation of the principle of legality and of the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in international criminal law from a historical perspective. It starts with the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945 and then traces the development of these two processes side-by-side: the enshrinement of the principle of legality in a series of universal treaties protecting human rights between the 1960s and the 1980s and the criminalisation of crimes against humanity in the Statutes for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The regulation of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) will need to redefine the traditional legal and conceptual categories of the law of the sea, whose rules were adopted over the basis that ships were manned by a master and crew on board.An evolutionary interpretation of UNCLOS allows to justifiy that the IMO endeavours to regulate the operation of MASS. Within this framework, the IMO has completed an exploratory study, in which it adopted a preliminary definition of autonomous ships and identified three high-priority themes: the meaning of the terms master, crew, or responsible person; the consideration of the remote-control station or centre; and the possibility to designate remote operators as seafarers. Subsequently, the IMO established in 2022 a workplan to adopt a goal-based non-mandatory MASS Code in 2024 and a mandatory Code in 2025.Following the exploratory study and the ...