Piracy across Maritime Law: Is There a Problem of Definition?

Abstract

Through an examination of the definitions based on international and domestic law, of piracy and related terms across maritime law, this chapter shows that these two approaches as to the meaning of piracy, though potentially confusing, should actually be understood in the light of the history of maritime security threats as well as the functional attributes of State sovereignty. The chapter provides definitions of piracy across various branches of maritime law and leads to several findings concerning its interpretation. While the LOS Convention's expression 'committed for private ends' arguably excludes terrorist acts from the scope of 'piracy', the adoption of the SUA Convention has circumvented this gap. Domestic law, for its part, talks of pirates as indiscriminate robbers, so as to possibly equally exclude terrorists. Ultimately, there is a very interesting flexibility in the interpretation of 'piracy' across domestic maritime law despite the restriction of the LOS Convention definition. Keywords:domestic law; international law; LOS Convention; maritime law; State sovereignty; SUA Convention