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Home Archive for category "Piracy"

More Great Piracy Facts in U.S. Courts: Private Ends Edition

Published on February 28, 2013        Author: 

 Jon Bellish is a Project Officer at the Oceans Beyond Piracy project just outside Denver, Colorado, though the views expressed are solely those of the author. You can follow him on Twitter.

 On Monday, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion reversing the lower court and enjoining the Sea Shepherds of Whale Wars fame from coming within 500m of Japanese whaling vessels. In Cetacean v. Sea Shepherds, Judge Kozinski found, in the context of a request for a preliminary injunction in a civil action under the Alien Tort Statute, that the Sea Shepherds were likely committing piracy under UNCLOS. Judge Kozinski also found that the Sea Shepherds were violating the SUA Convention and the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS).

 Just as United States v. Ali presents excellent facts to test the limits of a high seas requirement for facilitators, Cetacean v. Sea Shepherds presents excellent facts to test the limits of the private ends requirement.

Some commentary has been written about the opinion already, and positions range from Kevin Jon Heller’s on Opinion Juris that Judge Kozinski “should spend less time writing clever introductions to his opinions and more time analyzing actual historical sources” to Eugene Kontorovich’s on the Volokh Conspiracy that Judge Kozinski’s reasoning “is obviously correct.”

In reality, the question is closer than either Kevin or Eugene suggest. There are two competing conceptions of what constitutes “private ends,” and both have significant support in the drafting history. Whether the actions of the Sea Shepherds constitute piracy jure gentium depends on which of these interpretations carries the day.

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A Report on the Possibility of Future Somali Piracy Prosecutions in Mauritius

Published on December 26, 2012        Author: 

M_STERIO.jpgMilena Sterio is Associate Professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Much has been written about Somali piracy.  Academics on this forum, as well as others, have debated the best options for the prosecution of suspected Somali pirates.  Most pirates are detained by powerful navies of maritime nations, such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, or by joint maritime fleets such as the EU NAVFOR.  Yet, most capturing nations are not interested in prosecuting detained pirates in their national courts under true universal jurisdiction, because such prosecutions are expensive, logistically difficult and politically unattractive.  In order to avoid the undesirable policy of catch-and-release, maritime nations concluded transfer agreements with regional states interested in opening their national courtroom doors to Somali piracy prosecutions.

Over the past five years, transfer agreements have been concluded with Kenya and the Seychelles, and dozens of successful prosecutions have taken place in Mombasa and in Victoria.  Mauritius joined the “club” or piracy prosecuting nations recently, by concluding similar transfer agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union; apparently a transfer agreement is also being negotiated with the United States.  However, as of today, Mauritius has not actually accepted any detained pirates for prosecution purposes.  Professor Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University School of Law and I visited Mauritius from December 3- December 7, where we met with various government officials in order to advise them on best strategies for future Somali piracy prosecutions in Mauritian courts.  While I have already blogged about Professor Scharf’s and my trip to Mauritius, I will take this opportunity to explore differences between Mauritius and the two other prosecuting venues, Kenya and the Seychelles, and to recommend that Mauritius consider beginning prosecutions in the very near future.

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Drug trafficking at sea: no longer a crime of universal jurisdiction before US Courts?

Published on November 22, 2012        Author: 

Once again, a new maritime drug smuggling case raises interesting questions of international law and its implications for national prosecutions.

Back in 2010 I blogged on Medvedyev: a European Court of Human Rights case finding that an ad hoc agreement between France and Cambodia was an insufficient legal basis for France to prosecute drug smuggler. The agreement for France to board the vessel and assume jurisdiction over the offences discovered was concluded by diplomatic note and valid at international law, but it was a defective basis of jurisdiction in European human rights law because (inter alia) it lacked a required quality of “foreseeability”. (That is, the Cambodian nationals in question could not have predicted they would become subject to French law).

In more recent developments, I am grateful to Ilias Bantekas for drawing to my attention the US Court of Appeals (11th Circuit) decision in US v Bellaizac-Hurtado (6 November 2012).

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After a Brief Hiatus, Kenya Once Again Has Universal Jurisdiction Over Pirates

Published on October 24, 2012        Author: 

 Jon Bellish is a Project Officer at the Oceans Beyond Piracy project just outside Denver, Colorado, though the views expressed are solely those of the author. You can follow him on Twitter.

On October 18, the Kenyan Court of Appeal in Nairobi handed down a pivotal decision in In re Mohamud Mohammed Hashi, et al. It held that Kenya has jurisdiction to try piracy suspects whose alleged acts occurred beyond the country’s territorial waters. Due to Kenya’s central role in the emerging global network of piracy prosecutions, the Court’s ruling in Hashi will have positive implications both within and outside of Kenya.

The Court of Appeal decision overturns a ruling from the High Court of Mombasa, which concluded that, “[Kenyan] Courts can only deal with offences or criminal incidents that take place within the territorial jurisdiction of Kenya.” For an excellent analysis of the lower court’s decision, I would point readers to this post on Communis Hostis Omnium.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Law and Domestic Law, Law of the Sea, Piracy, Universal Jurisdiction
 
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Breaking News from 1932: Pirate Facilitators Must Be Physically Present on the High Seas

Published on September 19, 2012        Author: 

Jon Bellish is a Project Officer at the Oceans Beyond Piracy project outside Denver, Colorado (though all of his views are his own). He has experience in United States piracy trials and just got on Twitter.

In the two years since the United States Justice Department began prosecuting Somalis for their alleged roles as pirate hostage negotiators, a debate has emerged as to whether UNCLOS requires facilitators of piracy to be physically present on the high seas in order to have committed piracy jure gentium and thus be subject to universal jurisdiction.

Highly reputable scholars and jurists have come out on different sides of this debate, due in large part to a lack of context surrounding UNCLOS art. 101, which provides the definition of piracy. Professor Douglas Guilfoyle takes the more expansive view that facilitation can take place within the jurisdiction of a state because UNCLOS art. 101(c), the section concerning facilitation, does not contain an explicit high seas limitation, as does art. 101(a)(1), which deals with the direct commission of piracy.

Advancing a narrower view, which I myself shared until recently, Professor Eugene Kontorovich argues that either an ex ante agreement to facilitate piracy ex post or concurrent facilitation while on the high seas is enough to commit piracy under the law of nations.

To an extent, this academic debate played out in practice when Judge Ellen Huevelle of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that a lack of high seas conduct kept an alleged pirate hostage negotiator outside the reach of universal jurisdiction. Although she was not presented with the question of whether an ex ante argument to facilitate subjected a facilitator to common jurisdiction, Judge Huevelle appears to side with the narrower conception of universal jurisdiction over pirate facilitators.

Because of the absence of historical insight into the bounds of universal jurisdiction over facilitators of piracy, most commentary to date has tended towards policy-heavy speculation based primarily on the text of UNCLOS itself. It appears, however, that the Harvard’s 1932 Draft Convention on Piracy has provided some much needed context for the debate.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, Law of the Sea, Piracy, Universal Jurisdiction
 

Committing Piracy on Dry Land: Liability for Facilitating Piracy

Published on July 26, 2012        Author: 

An important case before US Courts at present is US v Ali, where the defendant is accused of, among other offences, aiding and abetting piracy by acting as an interpreter. (See the ruling on a preliminary motion here.) The case clearly has implications for other facilitators of piracy, such as financiers and the bosses of pirate gangs.

However, it now appears the presiding judge, US District Judge Ellen Huvelle, has described the aiding and abetting piracy charge as an “outrage” given that US prosecutors can only place the defendant as present on a hijacked vessel – while it was still on the high seas – for less than 30 minutes. (See reports here and here.) The defendant did, however, allegedly spend 69 days on the vessel after its capture in his role as translator and intermediary for ransom negotiations (presumably while it was detained closer to shore).

The case may raise a number of features some would find objectionable (including the fact that US authorities lured the defendant to a “conference” on Somalia in order to arrest him), but this aiding and abetting charge should not be one of them.

At international law, piracy can be committed on dry land.

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Shooting fishermen mistaken for pirates: jurisdiction, immunity and State responsibility

Published on March 2, 2012        Author: 

Francesco Messineo referred below to the incident in which Italian marines, embarked aboard an oil tanker to protect it, appear to have killed two Indian fishermen mistaking them for pirates.

There has been a lively debate about how best to manage armed security for vessels transiting the high-risk piracy area off Somalia. The two options usually advocated are: embarking military forces to act as a Vessel Protection Detachment (VPD); and private armed security guards (PASGs). The usual issues for discussion are questions of jurisdiction, immunity and state responsibility.

What follows is a preliminary sketch of the issues as I see them.

Vessel Protection Detachments

In any such fatal shooting episode the first question is which State has jurisdiction: Italy or India? The answer is, of course, both States do.

As Francesco pointed out, if this episode occurred on the high seas (as it appears to have done), it is governed by the Lotus Case. In Lotus the PCIJ found, unremarkably and by analogy with crimes that cross land borders, that an offence commenced on a vessel of flag State A which has fatal consequences aboard the vessel of flag State B can be subject to the criminal law of both A and B. A treaty law exception was later created for the masters of vessels in respect of crimes resulting from collision and incidents of navigation. In such cases a master can only be prosecuted by his state of nationality or license-issuing authority (UNCLOS, Art. 97). Otherwise the general principle stands. In this sense the principle of the “exclusive jurisdiction” on the flag State can mislead those unfamiliar with the law of the sea. It is not an absolute prohibition on concurrent jurisdiction.

As Indian courts have jurisdiction, the next question is immunity. The easy thing to assume about VPDs is that they will enjoy State immunity for their official actions. While this is true, it falls for other States’ courts to respect it in practice – and there will always be pressure to look for exceptions where the death of a national is involved.

I have surveyed the relevant State practice elsewhere. I will confine myself to observing that that comparable cases are usually resolved in favour of State immunity, but often not swiftly. The issue is complicated by the fact that the modern law is dominated by Status of Forces Agreements – treaties concluded in advance which (broadly) settle the questions of immunity for forces stationed abroad from local criminal jurisdiction. This is a situation where no such treaty applies so the applicable law is customary international law, and the relevant cases tend to be old. Nonetheless, my reading of them suggests State immunity is not lost in fatal injury cases even where a defendant’s conduct was: careless, reckless, involved excessive force, or was contrary to instructions (in the narrow sense of carrying out an authorised act in an unauthorised manner). Immunity is unlikely to be upheld where a State agent has abused their authority out of malice or for personal gain (though in such cases State responsibility will still apply e.g. Mallen). Otherwise, especially in cases of genuine mistake, immunity should generally be upheld.

Obviously, the State remains responsible for the official acts of its agents irrespective of the determination regarding immunity. The question therefore arises as to whether Italy is obliged to compensate the victims or their families. Read the rest of this entry…

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, Human Rights, Law of the Sea, Piracy, State Responsibility
 

Briefly Noted: New Report on Somali Piracy

Published on January 12, 2012        Author: 

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee released its report on Somali piracy on 5 January 2012.* I acted as a specialist advisor to the committee, so I will not offer a full analysis but simply highlight some points of interest:

  • the report is critical of the failure to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean; however, it acknowledges that absent further naval resources the only effective way to protect vessels is to allow them to protect themselves – it thus supports the use of armed guards in some cases;
  • indeed, the committee notes that UK government policy on armed guards appeared to shift during its inquiry, with the release last December of a Department of Transport policy allowing the use of armed security on UK flag vessels for the first time;
  • the committee calls on the government to issue clear guidance on when armed guards may use potentially lethal force, noting that Crown Prosecution Service guidance on self-defence was not drafted with armed security guards in mind (paras 35-37);
  • the report includes as appendices transcripts of evidence; of particular interest is the evidence of Major General Buster Howes (head of the EU NAVFOR counter-piracy mission), Sally Healey (Somalia expert) and Paul and Rachel Chandler (piracy hostages – though some of their evidence will remain redacted until such time as no British hostages are being held);
  • the committee rejects calls for an international piracy tribunal or an extra-territorial Somali court sitting in Arusha and supports “recent proposals for specialised anti-piracy courts established within regional states under ordinary national law” as the most efficient and practical option (para 92);
  • the explanation of how decisions to prosecute and transfers for prosecution operate in practice is enlightening (see paras 102-3 in particular);
  • the report urges the government to consider prosecuting those piracy suspects intercepted by the Royal Navy in the UK where no other State will accept the case (para 107) but notes UK law may need clarification/updating (para 84 and n. 162);
  • also worth attention are the sections on “solutions on land” (noting that present “[i]nternational capacity to rebuild a Somali state is extremely limited” but supporting “community engagement” as the way forward) and on the UK government response to the Chandler case (recommending a review of procedures and lessons learned); and
  • finally, there are a series of interesting tables and graphs in the report, including those at pages 30 (total attacks against shipping compared to successful hijackings), 39 (numbers of ships and hostages held by pirates over time), 53 (pirate prosecutions internationally), 56 (total ransoms paid).

One statistic evident in, but not highlighted by, the report is the success rate of pirate attacks which halved from 2010 to 2011 (see page 30). This piece of good news is probably due to a mix of factors including naval patrolling, improvements in the passive security measures taken by vessels following Best Management Practices and increasing use of armed security. None of these measures, of course, should be seen as a panacea.

*I note the House of Lords also inquired into Somali piracy, reporting on 14 April 2010.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, EJIL Reports, Human Rights, Law of the Sea, Piracy, Self Defence, Universal Jurisdiction
 

Kenya Invades Somalia Invoking the Right of Self-Defence

Published on October 18, 2011        Author: 

Vidan Hadzi-Vidanovic is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nottingham School of Law.

At a press conference held in Nairobi on 15 October 2011, the Kenyan ministers of defence and interior announced that Kenyan security forces will engage in military operations against the Al-Shabaab militants in Somali territory. They invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter as a legal basis for these actions and pledged that all measures taken in the exercise of the right of self-defence will be reported to the Security Council. Additionally, they invoked the right to hot pursuit, although it is not clear whether it was regarded as a part of the right to self-defence or as a self-standing right. The announcement comes after a number of incidents which involved the incursions of Al-Shabaab elements as deep as 120km inside Kenyan territory, and abductions of several foreign nationals.

At the time of the writing of this post, reports indicate that the border between Kenya and Somalia has been closed and that Kenyan troops are gathering in the border area, preparing to invade Somali territory. It has also been reported that Kenyan troops have already entered 100km deep into Somali territory by Monday evening seizing two Al-Shabaab controlled towns. The Somali representative at the UN suggested that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) would see the incursion as a violation of Somali sovereignty while expressing some understanding for the Kenyan legitimate concerns.

Some Problems with the Kenyan Invocation of the Right to Self-Defence

According to Article 51, every state has an inherent right to defend itself by employing military means if it has been subjected to an armed attack. The traditional view—which still has a significant support—is that an armed attack must be attributable to a state.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, Law of the Sea, Piracy, Self Defence, Universal Jurisdiction
 

UN Secretary General Sets Out Options for dealing with Piracy off Somalia

Published on September 3, 2010        Author: 

The United Nations Secretary General has recently submitted a report to the Security Council in which he sets out 7 options for dealing with piracy off the coast of Somalia. The incidence of piracy off the coast of Somalia continues to be very high.

“7. … The number of attacks off the coast of Somalia has steadily increased since 1991, and over the past two years has increased from 111 vessels attacked in 2008 to 217 vessels attacked in 2009. . .  There were 30 attacks during the first quarter of 2010. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the pirates operate from around 70 camps on beaches on the Somali coast, which is approximately 1,800 miles long. Their methods have become increasingly sophisticated, indicating greater planning, financing and organization. . . .

8. While the number of attacks remains high, increased naval patrols off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden have effectively reduced the success rate of these attacks. In 2007, 63 per cent of attacks were successful; in 2008, 34 per cent were successful; in 2009, 21 per cent were successful; and the figure for 2010 is likely to be below 20 per cent.2 The decrease in success is attributable to the additional defensive measures put in place by merchant ships, their more cautious navigational routes, and effective naval operations. Nevertheless, as at 15 May 2010, some 450 mariners were being held hostage on vessels captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The involvement of naval vessels from more than 30 States represents one of the largest peacetime naval operations ever.”

In April of this year, the Security Council in resolution 1918 requested the Secretary-General to present a report exploring the options for prosecuting the persons responsible for piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia. In his report , the Secretary General has set out 7 options:

Option 1: The enhancement of United Nations assistance to build capacity of regional States to prosecute and imprison persons responsible for acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia

Option 2: The establishment of a Somali court sitting in the territory of a third State in the region, either with or without United Nations participation

Option 3: The establishment of a special chamber within the national jurisdiction of a State or States in the region, without United Nations participation

Option 4: The establishment of a special chamber within the national jurisdiction of a State or States in the region, with United Nations participation

Option 5: The establishment of a regional tribunal on the basis of a multilateral agreement among regional States, with United Nations participation

Option 6: The establishment of an international tribunal on the basis of an agreement between a State in the region and the United Nations

Option 7: The establishment of an international tribunal by Security Council resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations

The Secretary General has dismissed as a viable option the extension of the jurisdiction of existing international courts to include prosecution of piracy. So proposals to allow the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Criminal Court or the African Court of Human Rights to prosecute the crime of piracy have not been accepted by the Secretary General. However, it may well be that the option of allowing the African Court of Human Rights to prosecute pirates returns to the fore when the African Union discusses the extension of the jurisdiction of that Court to include prosecution of international crimes. That discussion, which is gathering steam, is primarily about attempts to create a regional African Court to prosecute ICC crimes but I would not be surprised to see piracy included in the jurisdiction of that Court, if the attempt succeeds.

The Secretary General’s Option 1 is already being pursued with the opening of a special anti-piracy court in Kenya. If there is sufficient assistance to States and  domestic courts to undertake these prosecutions it is not quite clear to me why an international (or even a regional) tribunal is needed, especially given the cost of establishing such tribunals. In the Security Council debate about the report, it appears that the UK and France were also not keen on establishing a new international tribunal.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, Law of the Sea, Piracy