Copyright ? 2010 California Law Review, Inc. California Law Review, Inc. (CLR) is a California nonprofit corporation. CLR and the authors are solely responsible for the content of their publications. t Associate Professor, Northwestern University Law School. The author thanks Steven Art for his extraordinary assistance in researching this Essay, and the Global Law Forum at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for its support for an earlier version of this project. Avi Bell, Evan Criddle, Gregory McNeal, and Bernard Oxman provided helpful comments. This Essay was selected for presentation at the National Security Law Junior Scholar's Workshop at the University of Texas, sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and at the American Association of Law Schools annual meeting. Special thanks go to the commentators and other participants. 1. See Germany Calls for International Court to Prosecute Pirates, FoxNews.com, Dec. 23, 2008, http://www.foxnews.corn/story/0,2933,471804,00.html (explaining why nations today are reluctant to act against pirates). 2. Jeffrey Gettleman, Pirates Outmaneuver Warships off Somalia, N.Y. Times, Dec. 15, 2008, at A6 (Even if foreign navies nab some members of his crew, Mr. Jama said, he is not worried. He said his men would probably get no more punishment than a free ride back to the beach.). 3. In 2008, the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce reported an unprecedented wave of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, with 111 recorded attacks. See ICC Commercial Crime Services, 1MB Reports Unprecedented Rise in Maritime Hijackings, Jan. 16, 2009, http://www.icc-ccs.org/mdex.php7op reports-unprecedented-rise-in-maritime-hij ackings&catid=60 :ne ws&Itemid=51.