The ransom amount

Gone are the days of Stevenson’s Long John Silver, of pirates decamping with buried treasures or lugging treasure chests. Today when ships are attacked and captured, a tall ransom changes hands. On an average, today most captured ships fetch a ransom of anything between $300,000 and $1.5 million. If Danish-owned Svitzer Korsakov captured off Somalia’s northern semi-autonomous Puntland region was freed after the payment of a ransom of $700,000, a Spanish fishing boat captured by Somali pirates from Spain’s Basque region in April 2008 was released within a week’s time after the Spanish government reportedly paid a ransom of $1.2 million. Somali pirates released a German operated ship in September 2008 after a ransom of $ 1.1 million was paid, while $1.5 million reportedly changed hands for the release of Japanese tanker MT Irene, captured on August 21, 2008. With shipping companies agreeing to pay huge ransoms, the frequency of attacks have gone up.

The law

Piracy is considered a breach of a conventional international norm that states must uphold, a crime against nations instead of any particular nation. Those guilty of the crime of piracy are considered by sovereign states to be enemies of humanity. In English law, piracy was considered petit treason, while during the reign of Henry VIII it was redefined as felony.

The complexity of the laws

Pirates attack ships mostly outside the territorial waters of a state, making it difficult for the sovereign states to prosecute them. Their prosecution on high seas contravenes the conventional freedom of the high seas. However, because of universal jurisdiction, action can be taken against pirates without objection from the flag state of the pirate vessel.

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