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Piracy and the Law: Modern Piracy - part 2

© Cindy Vallar

Efforts to stem piracy began during ancient times in Crete, Athens, and the island of Rhodes. The Rhodians were the first to include piracy in their maritime laws. During the Middle Ages, pirates were one of several thorns in trade between countries. To address this and other issues northern cities in Germany and German merchants in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, and the Baltic banded together to form the Hanseatic League. Eventually, some countries established admiralty courts to enforce maritime laws. To Sir Charles Hedges, a judge of the British Admiralty Court during the late 1600s, pirates were robbers who seized a ship and/or its cargo through violent means upon the sea. In spite of these legal attempts to deal with piracy, though, an internationally accepted definition of piracy didn't exist prior to 1958.

Article 15 of the 1958 Geneva Convention of the High Seas and Article 101 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea define piracy as a violent seizure on the high seas of a private ship or the illegal detainment of persons or property aboard said ship for the purpose of private gain. Seems simple, but in reality there are problems with this definition. First, it limits piracy to crimes committed against private property or citizens. Second, the act must occur in international waters. Third, greed must be the motivating factor behind the crime.

What the law fails to address are acts of piracy committed: by governments, within territorial waters, for political purposes. For example, in 1997 the Libra Buenos Aires was at anchor in Rio de Janeiro's harbor. Around midnight, ten armed pirates boarded the cargo ship and threatened to kill the crew. They beat the ship's master until he opened the safe, then they searched the cabins for valuables and stole some cargo. Although authorities were notified and help was requested, none arrived. That same year the Petrobulk Racer anchored off Jakarta. A small boat approached the tanker's bow. While the crew kept watch on it, a lone pirate boarded the vessel elsewhere and held a knife against an officer's neck while his fellow pirates came aboard. When another crewmember sounded an alarm, the pirates jumped ship. It was the third time that year that pirates had targeted the tanker while in Jakarta.

Another example occurs when armed men and/or women seize a ship for purposes other than financial gain. They do so to further some political agenda as in the case of the Achille Lauro in October 1985 when Palestinian guerrillas hijacked the Italian cruise ship while in Egyptian territorial waters. They demanded the release of 50 countrymen held by the Israelis before they would release the hostages. This made them terrorists rather than pirates, and they were eventually convicted of offenses related to the hijacking and murder of an American passenger rather than acts of piracy.