MSC.1/Circ.1638 — Outcome of the Regulatory Scoping Exercise for the Use of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS)

Notes

International Maritime Organization (2021) *MSC.1/Circ.1638: Outcome of the Regulatory Scoping Exercise for the Use of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS)*. London: IMO, 3 June 2021. Compiled into [[mass-regulatory-scoping-exercise]].

The Maritime Safety Committee circular (approved at MSC 103, May 2021) reporting the outcome of the RSE: an assessment of how far the existing IMO safety/security regulatory framework under the MSC's purview is affected by MASS operations across four degrees of autonomy, using a two-step methodology, identifying common gaps/themes and priorities, and recommending that the cross-cutting issues be addressed holistically through a new instrument (a goal-based "MASS Code"). Searchable text, OCR ok; verified via the RAW PDF (official IMO circular).

**Renamed** from the inbox filename `MSC.1-Circ.1638 - Outcome Of The Regulatory Scoping ExerciseFor The Use Of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships... (Secretariat).pdf` (spaces, parentheses, ellipsis removed) to a descriptive kebab-case name.

**Pagination note.** PDF pp. 1–2 are the covering circular; the Annex begins on PDF p. 3 and is paginated separately as "Annex, page N". Locators carry the offset **PDF p. N = Annex p. N−2** (PDF p. 3 = Annex p. 1).

**Routing note.** Owned by maritime-domain-kb: this is an IMO regulatory instrument (maritime regulations / IMO conventions are an explicit focus area). Cross-relevant to artificial-intelligence-kb (MASS, degrees of autonomy — see Porathe 2019 there) and remote-operations-kb (remote control centre); those KBs link rather than duplicate.

```bibtex
@techreport{imo2021massrse,
  author      = {{International Maritime Organization}},
  title       = {Outcome of the Regulatory Scoping Exercise for the Use of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS)},
  institution = {International Maritime Organization, Maritime Safety Committee},
  type        = {Circular},
  number      = {MSC.1/Circ.1638},
  address     = {London},
  year        = {2021},
  month       = {6}
}
```

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