By Eugene Kontorovich In a surprising and dramatic development, a federal judge in Virginia threw the international campaign against Somali piracy into jeopardy this week by dismissed piracy charges against a Somalis accused of an attack on a U.S. warship. The holding turned on a statute dating back to 1819 that punishes “piracy against the [...]

With assistance from American friends, Blogactiv has been able to put questions to Bob Haywood, Executive Director of One Earth Future Foundation about the forthcoming UN Contact Meeting about maritime piracy. Mr Haywood explains the issues surrounding piracy and the EU in some detail.

In 2009 over thirty countries contributed warships to protect vital tankers and cargo ships sailing around the Horn of Africa. While these navies have indeed reduced the number of successful hijackings per 100 attacks, the pirates doubled the number of attacks, vastly increased the area where they can mount assaults, and succeeded in hijacking forty-seven [...]

Some of the world’s top experts on maritime and international law are meeting, for the first time, to discuss the establishment of an international court to try piracy cases. The focus is purely legal and certainly groundbreaking — nationally and internationally. It is also, very timely since pirate-seized ship stories have been in the news [...]