A comparative analysis of anti-maritime piracy laws with special reference to the Maltese legal system

Abstract

The complex and multifaceted phenomenon of maritime piracy has plagued the high seas since time immemorial, and in recent years this practice has been resurgent across numerous piracy ‘hot-spots’, adversely impacting international maritime shipping. Malta, which presently possesses the largest merchant shipping register in Europe and the sixth largest register worldwide, is directly impacted by such a phenomenon since 147 attacks of armed robbery and piracy have been inflicted against Maltese-registered ships between 2008 and 2020. Indeed, this research paper will analyse the manner by which the Maltese legislator has enacted robust anti-maritime piracy laws within our Criminal Code criminalising such a heinous offence. Upon considering the Maltese anti-piracy regime, the salient features characterising other municipal piracy laws across different jurisdictions will be thoroughly analysed, including the Seychelles, Italy, Kenya and the United States (U.S.). This lex lata analysis, coupled with the comparative evaluation of the select States, will attest that a lack of harmonisation presently characterises municipal ‘piracy’ legislation. Indeed, the purpose of this research paper is to illustrate that presently, no comprehensive approach to contemporary municipal piracy legislation is present. In fact, national legislation has varied in the respective definitions attributed to the term ‘piracy’, the punishments and sentences imposed upon those who perpetrate such a crime, and the prosecution of pirates before national courts. The regimes analysed in this research paper vary in their legal approach to such a crime and have assumed different roles in attempting to end the troubling impunity which has traditionally surrounded such an international phenomenon, by enacting commendable anti-piracy legal regimes enabling them to undertake both regional and non-regional piracy prosecutions.