The Panther Bay
Pirate Blog

Kenya is a pretty important nation on the east coast of Africa, and its in the center of the piracy controversy. Recently, Kenya's supreme court ruled that its government could not prosecute pirates because their crimes occurred outside Kenyan territory.

Leaving aside the legal validity of the question (which is an interesting one), what might happen if other nations used the same legal reasoning and stopped prosecuting pirates? Right now, shipping companies can rely on the legal systems of the nations with which they do business to prosecute pirates. Without them, these companies would be forced to rely on their own means of protection.

For years, the shipping companies seemed content to pay off the pirates since their activity was little more than extortion. The resulting profitability of piracy allowed these illegal enterprises to flourish. Not surpringly, lots of "entrepreneurs" entered the market to take advantage of "untapped" revenues since the shipping companies seemed unwilling to turn off the spigot.

Now, shipping companies (and high profile cases such as the chandlers ) seem to be turning off the spigot .

Are the pirates better off being prosecuted in nations with established legal systems and rules, or by shipping companies unbound by international law? Something worth thinking about..if I were a modern day pirate.