Piracy and Terrorism at Sea

Abstract

Anyone contemplating a voyage by sea may have good reason to prefer the vigorous view of the law stated in 1817 by Lord Stowell to the permissiveness recorded in 1984 by Professor O’Connell. There are today so many groups or gangs claiming political motives for the crimes they commit against inoffensive travellers that the exemption of insurgents from the penalties of piracy can only be deplored.

With professed pirates there is no state of peace. They are the enemies of every country and at all times, and therefore are universally subject to the extreme rights of war. — lord stowell¹

Any illegal acts of violence, detention or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft … on the high seas … outside the jurisdiction of any state. — un convention on the law of the sea²

[It] would be a false characterization of illicit acts to describe them as piracy when the intention of the insurgents is to wage war. — o’connell³