Abstract:
Piracy is a crime as old as sailing of ship in the sea. Piracy was earlier used as a tool by empires to snatch the wealth of other empires during transportation through waters by issuing pirates letter of marque by the government or state however with the passage of time such practice of piracy backed by authorization by an empire has been eliminated. With developments and evolution in the world, the concept of piracy continued to change. Under the customary international law, piracy has been declared to be a crime against mankind and whole humanity. With developments in the international law, piracy has been declared to be international crime which is subject of universal jurisdiction and any state can exercise its jurisdiction under international law to capture the pirates and prosecute them.
In this modern era, presently the basic legal instrument under international law related to piracy is UNCLOS, 1982 which is also termed as constitution of law of sea. UNCLOS provides definition of piracy and universal jurisdiction against piracy. After establishment of UN, the international community promoted international trade transforming the world into a global village. Approximately more than 80% of international trade is carried out through seas and states are proceeding with slogans of ‘Blue Economy’. The problem is alarming situation created by the incidents of piracy occurring even in this modern era despite of a legal mechanism to counter piracy and regional cooperation regimes. Such incidents of piracy in this modern era is a threat to the international trade as international trade routes are at risks depreciating the confidence of international traders. This research is based on discussion of concept of piracy, its brief history, reported incidents of piracy in recent era, legal framework in field to counter piracy, regional alliances and measures taken by different states to suppress piracy, prosecution of pirates and challenges for prosecuting states and the data has been analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of existing legal mechanism to counter piracy so to answer the research statement and providing recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of legal mechanism to counter piracy.
