International Law
Pirates in East Asia continued
Empire State University, Joey Bonura
However, there are some laws in place that are designed to combat piracy. The main set of guidelines comes from the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. This document outlines all legal necessities that go into combatting robbery at sea in articles 100 to 107. In article 101 of the UNCLOS, piracy is defined as: are being captured and then released.( Eugene Kontorovich, 2009) The corruption in East Asia may be one of the reasons that this is happening. Overall, I think that piracy is going to continue being a problem in East Asia. There is a lot of corruption there and people don’ t have much to loose if they are captured because they are often released.
Any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
On the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
Against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State
Any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;
Any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph( a) or( b)
Since the pirate attacks happen overseas, it is often difficult to decide on jurisdiction for the case. They are permitted to use
universal jurisdiction in order to determine this. Universal jurisdiction“ allows states or International organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused ' s nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting entity.”( Wikipedia)
One of the problems with universal jurisdiction in Southeast Asia is that they do not qualify to initiate the universal jurisdiction under UNCLOS.“ UNCLOS requires that a crime occur on the high seas in order to be punishable as piracy.”( Erik Barrios) But most of the attacks are happening in the states territorial waters and they are not practicing it because they do not want to deal with the burdens of having a trial. Trials are very expensive so a lot of times the pirates
The articles of the UNCLOS may need to be redefined in order to allow easier opportunities for universal jurisdiction.
References
Barrios, Erik. " Casting a Wider Net: Addressing the Maritime Piracy Problem in Southeast Asia." Law Digital Commons. N. p., 5 Dec. 2005. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// lawdigitalcommons. bc. edu / cgi / viewcontent. cgi? article = 1078 & context = iclr >.
Kontorovich, Eugene. " Commentary: Invoke Universal Jurisdiction to Prosecute Pirates Worldwide." Law. com. N. p., 15 May 2009. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// www. law. com / jsp / article. jsp? id = 1202430706808 >.
" Piracy in South East Asia, A Growing Threat." Idarat Maritime. N. p., 13 July 2012. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// www. idaratmaritime. com / wordpress /? p = 137 >.
" PREAMBLE TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA." UN News Center. UN, n. d. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// www. un. org / depts / los / convention _ agreements / texts / unclos / part7. htm >.
Shadbolt, Peter. " Asia ' s Sea Pirates Target Treasure of Marine Fuel." CNN. Cable News Network, 08 Feb. 2013. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// edition. cnn. com / 2013 / 02 / 08 / world / asia / asia-piracy >.
" Universal Jurisdiction." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 June 2013. Web. 16 June 2013. < http:// en. wikipedia. org / wiki / Universal _ jurisdiction >.