The Status and Use of Hospital Ships in Times of Peace and War: Law of the Sea, Maritime Law and the Law of Naval Warfare

Abstract

Abstract Hospital ships are vessels that are designed or equipped and primarily used to provide medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for sick or in-jured people at sea. Under the law of the sea and maritime law, such ves-sels are not dealt with separately. Therefore, their status and the respective rules applicable to them depend on the entities operating them. If operated by the armed forces of a State for exclusively government non-commercial purposes they qualify as warships or, if they are under the command of a civilian master, other State ships (“auxiliaries”) that enjoy sovereign im-munity in all sea areas, including the internal waters of another State. If operated by private entities or individuals, they qualify as merchant vessels. The law of naval warfare distinguishes between military hospital ships op-erated by the parties to the conflict and private hospital ships. The latter may be operated by national Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies, officially recognized relief societies, or private persons either of the parties to an in-ternational armed conflict or of a neutral State. The protection of all hospital ships under the 1949 Geneva Convention II is subject to comparatively strict conditions, some of which may have become obsolete in light of contempo-rary technologies and novel threats.