Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Is Piracy Terrorism?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228697059
Douglas Burgess Jr. [1]makes the interesting argument that pirates are
a type of terrorist and should be treated as such.
The solution to piracy lies in the very nature of piracy itself.
The Roman lawmaker Cicero defined piracy as a crime against
civilization itself, which English jurist Edward Coke famously
rephrased as �hostis humani generis� � enemies of the human race.
As such, they were enemies not of one state but of all states, and
correspondingly all states shared in the burden of capturing them.
. . .
Pirates are not ordinary criminals. They are not enemy combatants.
They are a hybrid, recognized as such for thousands of years, and
can be seized at will by anyone, at any time, anywhere they are
found.
. . . Are pirates a species of terrorist? In short, yes. The same
definition of pirates as hostis humani generis could also be
applied to international organized terrorism. Both crimes involve
bands of brigands that divorce themselves from their nation-states
and form extraterritorial enclaves; both aim at civilians; both
involve acts of homicide and destruction, as the United Nations
Convention on the High Seas stipulates, �for private ends.�
It is an interesting argument, but it may have a faulty premise. As
[2]Kevin Jon Heller notes, while pirates may be enemies of all states,
that does not make them the same as terrorists.
The defining feature of terrorism is precisely that it is committed
not for private ends, but to intimidate a civilian population or to
influence government policy. Indeed, over the long and troubled
history of efforts to create a general definition of terrorism,
that is perhaps the only aspect of the definition that has never
seriously been in doubt. . . .
Pirates have no politics. They are, therefore, not terrorists.
References
1.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/opinion/05burgess.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
2. http://opiniojuris.org/2008/12/05/why-piracy-is-not-terrorism/
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