It is a happy Thanksgiving for defendants in two very different piracy cases – the trial of Ali, a Somali education official arrested while attending an education conference in the U.S., and the crew of Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise, arrested by Russia last month while minding Russia’s business on an oil rig. I’ve written about […]
Tag Archives | piracy
Belgium’s Remarkable Capture of Pirate Ringleader
By Eugene Kontorovich on October 16, 2013 6:48 am in International Law, National Security, Uncategorized
Belgium has captured a senior Somali pirate kingpin in a remarkable operation. The leader of a pirate group, he had long been sought for hijacking a Belgian vessel in 2009. Now, undercover agents lured him and an associate to the Low Countries by pretending to be documentary film makers interested in making a movie about […]
Greenpeace & Russia – an International Pussy Riot
I blogged earlier about Russia’s illegal seizure of a Greenpeace vessel in international waters, and its laughable characterization of their acts as maritime piracy. The ship Arctic Sunrise had been boarded after an attempt to board or come alongside a Russian oil rig for some kind of non-violent protest. Subsequently, Vladimir Putin apparently poured cold […]
Russia’s Piracy Charges Against Greenpeace Groundless and Illegal
Russia has seized a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel in international waters, and plans to charge the crew with piracy. The environmentalists had attempted to unfurl a protest banner on a Russian Arctic oil platform. Russian commandos raided the Arctic Dawn and towed it to port. The unusual piracy charges may well be inspired by a Ninth […]
Kiobel and Academic Fallability
By Eugene Kontorovich on April 17, 2013 12:54 pm in Alien Tort Statute, International Human Rights Law, International Law
Alongside the Health Care Act decision, Kiobel is an example of the professoriate failing to predict the issues that would be taken seriously by the Court both on substance and style. When the Second and Ninth Circuit began questioning “foreign cubed” suits a few years ago, the great majority of scholars dismissed such claims as […]
Defining “High Seas Felonies” in Another Country
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 18, 2013 9:00 am in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Global Governance/World Government, International Law, National Security, Uncategorized, War on Drugs
A district court recently ruled that Congress’s power to “Define and Punish… Felonies on the High Seas” extends beyond the high seas, to conduct entirely within a foreign country (on dry land), with no U.S. nexus. The case is U.S. v. Carvajal, 2013 WL 619890 (Feb. 20, 2013). The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) […]
In Other Pirate News
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 1, 2013 1:33 pm in International Law, National Security, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
A group of armed men attack a U.S. warship on the high seas. Piracy under international law? Yesterday, the U.S. District Court in Richmond convicted a group of Somalis for an attack on the U.S.S. Ashland (such incidents are not uncommon). Boy these guys were dumb – what were they thinking? Of course, if Judge […]
“Private ends” in the Travaux Préparatoires of the Law of the Sea Treaty
A look at the legislative history does not support the notion of a subjective, political exemption for politically-motivated pirates. Kevin Jon Heller’s argument that political motives are excluded from piracy rests less on the Law of the Sea Treaty itself than on its intellectual predecessors, the League of Nations Report of 1927 and the Harvard […]
What the Definition of Piracy Means for UNCLOS & ATS
By Eugene Kontorovich on February 28, 2013 1:05 pm in Alien Tort Statute, Criminal Law, International Law, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict
Judge Kozinski has gotten considerable criticism from liberals for ruling that Sea Shepherd is involved in piracy under international law. A subsequent post will provide additional support for the decision on the merits. Here, I’d like to look at the big picture and suggest that liberals should be thanking Kozinski: a contrary ruling would have […]
Whale Wars Update: Ninth Circuit Calls Sea Shepherd Actions “Piracy”
Here is the opening of Judge Kozinski’s opinion, reversing a lower court ruling and issuing a preliminary injunction in an Alien Tort Statute suit against the Sea Shepherd’s attempts to interfere with Japanese whaling vessels on the high seas: You don’t need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl glass […]
French Use of Force in Africa
No, not Mali. Rather, the Gulf of Aden. A French fishing trawler sank a Somali pirate mothership during an exchange of fire. Several of the alleged pirates were killed; expect lawsuits about the French use of excessive force. Of course, Somali pirate apologists like to say that they have been driven to crime by massive […]
Fourth Circuit Piracy Ruling Won’t Be Revisited
The Supreme Court has denied certiori in a pair of Fourth Circuit piracy cases, which raised questions about the Define and Punish power and how federal courts determine international law when incorporated into a federal statute. I had previously argued that the decisions below were clearly correct.
Pirates on Screen: My First Role
Somali pirates, and the broader contexts of state failure and the maritime economy, are the subject of the new documentary film “Stolen Seas.” It has just had its first U.S. release at Cinema Village in New York. The filmmaker quite adventurously spent significant time with Somali pirates on land and at sea, to good effect. […]
Evolving International Law and Defining Offenses
By Eugene Kontorovich on May 24, 2012 11:58 am in Alien Tort Statute, Constitutional Law, International Law
The Fourth Circuit’s noteworthy decision in U.S. v. Dire is probably the first court of appeals decision in a piracy prosecution in nearly 200 years. The Fourth Circuit decision is important not only for some novel pending piracy cases, but for the Alien Tort Statute and broader questions about the interplay of U.S. and international […]