Posted on 03/23/2011 7:08:54 AM PDT by decimon
International piracy costs the shipping industry billions of dollars a year and leads to high-profile murders that make global headlines. Longstanding concerns over piracy have led to numerous international laws and conventions designed to keep pirates in check – but research from North Carolina State University shows that the tangled network of laws may actually be helping pirates escape justice.
“We wanted to know why the international community is not working together and taking advantage of existing laws to address piracy, even as piracy is on the rise in places like the horn of Africa,” says Dr. Mark Nance, assistant professor of political science at NC State and co-author of a paper on the issue.
The researchers found that the existing framework of international laws creates uncertainty in how countries will respond to piracy, depending on which international convention a nation chooses to apply. “For example,” Nance says, “a nation that captures pirates may choose to let them go, bring them home for prosecution in national courts, or take them to a third country for prosecution.” This uncertainty leaves different countries with different expectations as to how they could – or should – cooperate to address piracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ncsu.edu ...
An ignorant question about something that I know nothing about but bothers me immensely:
Why can’t a convoy system be instituted with the naval powers taking turns escorting them with destroyers and/or frigates?
They don’t have to be the 100 ship WWII variety but I have to believe the use of escorted convoys would cut down on piracy considerably.
The Russians handled it most correctly I believe. Dead men tell no tales. They choose to be Pirates, then they choose to walk the plank, hang from the yardarm, or be fish bait if caught in the act of piracy.
As a US ship is considered soverign US territory, Just bring ‘em aboard, conduct a swift military trial and hang ‘em!
The problem with any man made laws is they handicap the law abiding people.- Tom
The Chinese Navy has actually conducted convoys in the Indian Ocean that they let others join.
Shoot, Sink & Shut-up
As usual, the Chicoms beat us to the punch.
The answer is too simple for intellectuals to grasp.
Arm the ships. Either crewmen or security guards.
I can understand the reluctance to arm crewmen, mutiny. But security guards?
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