More On Somali Pirates

We posted about the Somali Pirates twice already but there is a need to give them the attention yet again. This post is to follow up on the Pace Law Library December 2008 newsletter written by Jack McNeil, Associate Law Library Director, and on the Pace Law Library Blog post How To Defend a 21st Century Pirate, by Cynthia Pittson, the Head of Reference Department. The Legal Talk Network has a podcast discussing the prosecution of a pirate in an episode titled Legal Case Against a Pirate. Sit back and enjoy!

The first prosecution of a pirate in the U.S. in 100 years! The world watched closely as Richard Phillips, Captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship was rescued, after being held hostage by four Somali pirates. Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome piracy law expert, Professor Samuel P. Menefee, Maury Fellow at University of Virgina’s Center for Ocean Law and Policy and Attorney Joseph R. McFaul from Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP and a retired Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, to explore the legal issues on the high seas surrounding the Somali pirates, the future of the captured pirate and how this case could be a deterrent in other incidents of piracy.

How to Defend a 21st Century Pirate

Pace Law Professor Sasha Greenawalt is quoted in this article in New York Magazine's Daily Intel for April 23. Prof. Greenawalt discusses defenses that may be available to Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the age-indeterminate Somali pirate who is charged with piracy for his role in boarding the Maersk Alabama with three other men and taking the ship's captain hostage.

Prof. Greenawalt discusses protection offered by the Geneva Conventions (Muse as an injured combatant and POW), age (Muse's age is in question), and the victimization defense (Muse as an ignorant victim), but Prof. Greenawalt says that

ignorance and victimization are far from foolproof arguments in the American justice system.

The authors of the article add that "blaming it on the rum probably won’t work either."