Captain Phillips Safe and the Fourth Pirate

Youtube via BlackFive.

What happens to the fourth pirate now? I don't know but the Convention on the High Seas spells out the current law.

Article 19 On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft, or a ship taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board. The courts of the State which carried out the seizure may decide upon the penalties to be imposed, and may also determine the action to be taken with regard to the ships, aircraft or property, subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith.

And what happens under American law? It's fairly clear cut if we bring him here...

US CODE: Title 18,1651. Piracy under law of nations

Whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and is afterwards brought into or found in the United States, shall be imprisoned for life.

But that's only if we bring him here. It seems to me that we could transfer the guy to our base in Diego Garcia, or Djibouti, court-martial, or even execute a summary judgement to shoot the offender. All without violating one word in the Convention above.

Why? Because pirates have been considered "enemies of humanity" since Roman times (hostis humani generis is the latin term) and accordingly have no rights at all. Which is why some have argued towards conflating terrorists with pirates.

Obama has so far handled this well. Letting the Navy handle this one as they saw fit was definitely the right call and an easy one, given their training and professionalism. But the handling of that fourth pirate could prove to be tricky yet. The usual liberal kid glove treatment will earn him some criticism at home for anything less than Guantanamo treatment, but how will the international community react? And now we know that he's 16 and legally a minor if he was a citizen?

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