Refusing to Negotiate: Analyzing the Legality and Practicality of a Piracy Ransom Ban

32 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2014 Last revised: 4 Jan 2016

See all articles by Yvonne Dutton

Yvonne Dutton

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law; Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Jon Bellish

One Earth Future Foundation - Oceans Beyond Piracy Project

Date Written: March 7, 2014

Abstract

Concerns that ransom payments play a large role in encouraging and sustaining maritime piracy have prompted some commentators, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, to suggest that banning ransom payments may be necessary to end piracy. The benefit of taking away the possibility of the ransom should take away the incentive to engage in piracy and remove the funds to finance future illegal activities. The drawback of a ban is that in the short run it would put innocent lives at risk, a contrasting point that ship owners and their industry representatives have noted. This Article is sympathetic to both the arguments in favor of and against a piracy ransom ban. At the same time, we suggest that additional analysis is warranted before anyone concludes that a piracy ransom ban offers a promising tool for solving the problem of maritime piracy. This Article undertakes that additional analysis by examining (1) the legality of a ban from a criminal law standpoint on retributive theories about punishment and (2) the practicality of a ban given the international context in which the potential ban would have to apply. We conclude that a piracy ransom ban would likely be inconsistent with the retributive principles of criminal law, since it would punish innocent victims who pay ransoms under duress. We further suggest that even if there are good reasons, in theory, to criminalize ransom payments, banning piracy ransoms would be impractical from an international law standpoint since any such ban would pose collective action problems. Absent the unlikely universal ban, a piracy ransom ban supported only by select countries probably will not prove an effective deterrent to maritime piracy.

Keywords: piracy, ransoms

Suggested Citation

Dutton, Yvonne and Dutton, Yvonne and Bellish, Jonathan, Refusing to Negotiate: Analyzing the Legality and Practicality of a Piracy Ransom Ban (March 7, 2014). Cornell International Law Journal, Vol. 47, pp. 299-329, 2014, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Research Paper No. 2014-7, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2406033

Yvonne Dutton (Contact Author)

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
United States

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
United States

Jonathan Bellish

One Earth Future Foundation - Oceans Beyond Piracy Project ( email )

525 Zang Street, Suite C+D
Broomfield, CO 80021
United States

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