Law of the Sea Commons^™

Maritime Piracy: A Sustainable Global Solution, Paul Williams, Lowry Pressly

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Maritime piracy is a complex transnational security concern characterized by emerging international finance operations and organization, an oversupply of labor, and a low cost of market entry. This article provides a realistic picture of the driving forces behind maritime piracy in areas such as Southeast Asia, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Guinea. By examining some of the assumptions and proposed solutions in counter-piracy literature and policy, this article exposes some piracy illusions and proposes a sustainable, global response that addresses the persistent threat of modern maritime piracy. Today's manifold piracy challenges call for a multifaceted approach. Accordingly, …

Piracy Prosecutions In National Courts, Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

At least for the time being, the international community must rely on national courts to prosecute modern-day pirates. The first wave of domestic piracy prosecutions suggests, however, that domestic courts have yet to achieve the necessary consistency and expertise in resolving key questions of international law in these cases. This article evaluates how courts trying modern-day pirates have addressed common questions of international law regarding the exercise of universal jurisdiction, the elements of the crime of piracy, and the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. In doing so, it evaluates five decisions issued in 2010 by courts in Kenya, the …

Proving Corporate Criminal Liability For Negligence In Vessel Management And Operations: An Allision-Oil Spill Case Study, Craig H. Allen

Articles

Maritime policy analysts often invoke the "vessel safety net" metaphor to explain the independent, but overlapping, risk management roles and responsibilities of the vessel master and crew, owner and charterer, operating company, classification society, flag state and port states. Oil spills from the 2002 M/T Prestige break up off the coast of Galicia, Spain, the 2007 M/V Cosco Busan bridge allision in San Francisco Bay and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, among others, demonstrate that any or all of the components of that safety net may come under scrutiny following a marine casualty, possibly leading …

The Somali Piracy Problem: A Global Puzzle Necessitating A Global Solution, Milena Sterio

American University Law Review

Over the past few years, piracy has exploded off the coast of Somalia. The Somali pirates congregate on a mother ship and then divide into smaller groups that sail out on tiny skiffs. Using potent weapons like AK-47’s and hand-propelled grenades, the Somali pirates then attack civilian ships carrying cargo through the Gulf of Aden, toward South Africa or Asia. Once they have overtaken the victim vessel, pirates typically hijack the vessel’s cargo and crewmembers. The former is often resold to willing buyers (some of which include terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda). The latter are taken to the Somali shore …

Mugged Twice?: Payment Of Ransom On The High Seas, Lawrence Rutkowski, Bruce G. Paulsen, Jonathan D. Stoian

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Salvage Awards On The Somali Coast: Who Pays For Public And Private Rescue Efforts In Piracy Crises?, Geoffrey Christopher Rapp

American University Law Review

This paper, a contribution to the "Troubled Waters: Combating Modern Piracy with the Rule of Law" symposium, explores the question of who pays for rescue efforts associated with maritime piracy. The paper explores the availability of admiralty law's salvage awards to governmental and non-governmental actors who intervene to rescue vessels and crew from pirates. Such awards provide an unusual incentive to rescue, traditionally unavailable for land-based rescue, but may raise complicated questions of policy and international law. The paper concludes by comparing salvage awards to a recent trend in American states to adopt "Search and Rescue" expense statutes allowing governments …

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin

American University Law Review

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account …

How Piracy Has Shaped The Relationship Between American Law And International Law, Joel H. Samuels

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rationality, Pirates, And The Law: A Retrospective, Peter T. Leeson

American University Law Review

In the late 1720s Caribbean piracy was brought to a screeching halt. An enhanced British naval presence was partly responsible for this. But most important in bringing pirates to their end was a series of early 18th-century legal changes that made it possible to effectively prosecute them. This short paper’s purpose is to recount those legal changes and document their effectiveness. Its other purpose is to analyze pirates’ response to the legal changes designed to exterminate them, which succeeded, at least partly, in frustrating the government’s goal. By providing a retrospective look at anti-piracy law and pirates’ reactions to that …

Foreword, José Luis Jesus

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Countering Persistent Contemporary Sea Piracy: Expanding Jurisdictional Regimes, Joseph M. Isanga

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Passion: An Essay On Personality , Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Passion is a cogently structured, compel Jingly argued and seductively enthralling masterpiece which, in years to come, will undoubtedly stand out as an inspirational source for many who seek social transformation. Unger's style, in this essay at least, is lucid and inviting. Substantively, Passion demonstrates not only the depth of his penetrating intellect but also his command of an array of' disciplines. Unger's polymathy is all the more impressive when we remember that ours is an era in which idiosyncratic specialization is the norm.

The Contours Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In Drug Smuggling Cases, Stephen E. Chelberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note examines the contours of U.S. jurisdiction over drug smugglers on the high seas. After a brief discussion of the two principal U.S. drug statutes, the note considers the territorial and protective principles of jurisdiction as defined by U.S. courts. Controversy currently centers around whether U.S. drug laws apply to foreign ships, carrying controlled substances on the high seas, where there has been no showing of an intent to import the drugs into the United States.

Case Digest, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Definition of Seaman under the Jones Act Need Not be Restricted to Person Assigned to Only One Vessel

Fourth Amendment Does Not Bar Warrantless Fishing Vessel Searches Authorized by the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 to Protect Fisheries in the Conservation Zone

Properly Extradited Fugitive Not Entitled to Judicial Hearing Challenging Enlargement of Original Warrant of Surrender

Visa Numbers Wrongfully Charged Against Western Hemisphere Quotas are Reissued According to an Historical Approach Rather than Chronological Order

Payment of Irrevocable Letter of Credit May Not be Enjoined on Grounds of Instability of Foreign Governments

Expropriation of a Contractual Right …

Books Received, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Chile: The Balanced View

Edited by Francisco Orrego Vicuna

Santiago: The University of Chile, 1975. Pp. 298.

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Codification in the Communist World--Symposium in Memory of Zsolt Szirmai Organized by Donald Barry, F.J.M. Feldbrugge & Dominick Lasok

Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff, 1975. Pp. xv, 353. $42.50.

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Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons: Prevention and Punishment

By Louis M. Bloomfield & Gerald F. Fitzgerald.

New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Pp. xviii, 272. $16.50.

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Criminal Justice in Eighteenth Century Mexico

By Colin M. MacLachlan

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. Pp.viii, 141. $9.00.

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EEC Anti-Trust Law--Principles and Practice

By D. Barounos, …