What is reverse hot pursuit and how it can combat modern day piracy

Abstract

Scope: The purpose of this dissertation is to comprehend the function of reverse hot pursuit for combatting modern day pirates, most notably in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. In doing so the legality of the right of reverse hot pursuit will be questioned, as such a specific power is not explicitly granted within customary law and nor is it explicitly forbidden. Acts of piracy do not only cause a negative impact to countries within the region where pirate attacks occur. They also damage other countries by disrupting trade routes, taking control of cargo vessels, and taking hostages for ransom. Piracy is common in multiple countries, yet Somalia’s situation is especially worrying due to the fact that the Somali government does not have the means to combat piracy in the region, which made the Somali territorial sea a safe haven for pirates who wish to elude law enforcement at sea. Reverse hot pursuit would allow military vessels to continue their pursuit of pirates within Somalia’s territorial sea, aiding the suppression of piracy within the region. Methodology: The data and information in this dissertation have been compiled by making use of readily available secondary data, including law articles, court cases and official statistics. The widely available information found within the internet and books regarding the subject of reverse hot pursuit, the piracy crisis within Somalia’s territorial sea and piracy in general, including criticisms and suggestions from law professors have been collected in order to be compiled and analysed within this dissertation. Limitations: Secondary research, may come with certain limitations, although the material used to compile this dissertation has been, whenever possible, collected from sources which have been written recently there is still a possibility that the information which was gathered from those sources has become outdated. As reverse hot pursuit is not compulsory law and neither is it allowed in regional agreements, unless permission to the foreign military vessel to enter the territorial sea is given by the coastal State, there is a rather limited amount of information available on the subject, which in turn makes it challenging to gauge out whether the right of reverse hot pursuit could also work in practice, instead of only in theory.