Precautions and imposed sanctions against international piracy

Piracy has been one of the oldest crimes throughout history. Although it is an old crime, there had never been a definition in international law until the middle of the 20th century. Rules of international law relating to piracy was written in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas. The rules on piracy in the 1958 Convention on the High Seas were adopted exactly to the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention. The concept of piracy is often confused with the concept of privateering which was a legal method of war until the 1856 Paris Declaration. However, the concept of piracy expresses different meaning from the concept of privateering. An authorization certificate is given to the piravateer by states. There is not such a case in piracy. Judgement of pirates has been left to domestic law of the states in international law. All states have the right of capturing and judging pirates on the high seas. However, states have been reluctant to judge the pirates. As a result, a series of decisions has been taken by the United Nations Security Council in order to prevent increasing piracy, especially in the recent times. Civil and military operations have been made by the international community in the light of the these decisions. Keywords: Piracy, The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Somalia, Privateering, Djibouti Code of Conduct