6.3 Piracy

The definition (UNCLOS's high-seas crime): the piracy = (a) the illegal acts of violence or detention, or depredation, (b) for private ends, (c) by the crew or passengers of a PRIVATE ship or private aircraft, (d) on the high seas (or outside any state's jurisdiction), (e) against another ship or aircraft (or persons/property aboard). The two-ship requirement (the exam's precision): the pirate ship attacks ANOTHER ship (the mutiny's internal hijacking not piracy in the UNCLOS sense); the private-ends element (the political motives' debate); the high-seas element (the territorial sea's piracy = the municipal crime, not the international). The universal jurisdiction (the doctrine's prize): ANY state may seize a pirate ship on the high seas (the universalis jurisdictio — the pirate as the hostis humani generis, the enemy of all mankind); the seizure's courts (the seizing state's); the suppression duty (the cooperation obligation). The modern faces: the Somalia-era piracy's revival (the armed robbery in the territorial seas — the adjacent term; the Security Council's authorisations — the pursuit into the Somali waters); the piracy's insurance-and- shipping economics; the suppression conventions (the SUA Convention's interface — the maritime violence beyond the UNCLOS definition). Exam Focus Long questions: (i) The high-seas freedoms' regime (the catalogue + the limits — the banker); (ii) The piracy's definition and the universal jurisdiction. Short questions: the flag…