현행 국제법상 해상조난자에 대한 지원제공의무의 법적 성격

The duty to render assistance to the persons in distress at sea has long been an interesting issue in the negotiating history of international instruments adopted for the enhancement of the marine safety. The duty with the character of good Samaritan obligation can be understood as having its origin in elementary considerations of humanity, more exacting in peace time than in war time. Due to the rapid development in maritime transport services and the expansion of economic interactions between neighbouring States, the risk of the distress at sea has remarkably increased. In response to the risk, the IMO has become actively involved in the formalisation of the duty. Amongst the efforts to formalise the duty by the IMO, the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue has made most significant contribution to the distinction between the duty to assist and the duty to rescue. The main objective of this paper is to clarify the nature, contents and scope of the duties to assist and to rescue. To this end, the international instruments in which the duties are well established as legal obligations will be reviewed in a comparative context: the instruments include international conventions on the law of the sea as well as the ones adopted under the auspices of the IMO. In addition, other obligations such as the duty to assist after a collision of vessels will also be examined with particular interests in proper chapters of this paper.