PIRACY AS A CRIME AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

by:

ATTY. ROMEO DAX B. CALAMAYA

Legal Officer, Coast Guard Legal Service
Philippine Coast Guard

Piracy as word first originated from the Greek word peirata which means
brigands of the sea. It was first recorded as a word in the English language in 1419,
however piracy or piracy jure gentium (piracy by the law of the nations) as it is
known was part of jus gentium (law of nations), under Roman Law.

It has been around as long as oceans have been used as trade routes for
shipping purposes making it an age-old trepidation among seafarers and the
maritime industry that legal luminaries considered it as a historic problem. In
certain periods, it has spiraled out of control that it had such a profound impact
throughout the ages that by the sixteenth century, jurists such as Grotius had
already developed the concept that nationals who committed piracy on terra
nullius (the high seas) placed themselves beyond the protection of any state and
were deemed hostes humani generis (enemies of the human race).

The crime of piracy under international law has been compared to a

breached of jus cogens which is a peremptory norm that all states must uphold. It
became the earliest invocation of the concept of universal jurisdiction which can
only be invoked by a State to prosecute general piracy against those acts that fall
within the definition of general piracy tacitly or explicitly agreed upon by members
of the international community.

Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a pirate can be tried and

punished by any state regardless of whether injury had been caused to the State or
its nationals. The rationale behind this is that a pirate acquires a stateless status and
therefore places himself beyond the protection of any State and the enemy of all
mankind, since piracy an offense against the law of nations, meaning that in its
jurisdictional aspects it is sui generis, though statutes may provide for its
punishment. It is an offense against the law of nations and as the scene of the
pirate’s operation is in the high seas, wherein no nation has a right or duty to
police, a pirate is denied the protection of the flag he may carry and therefore is
treated as an outlaw and an enemy of mankind whom any nation may in the
interest of all capture and punish.