At least with regards to those who international law has long defined as "enemies of all humanity".

ON April 11, French commandos went in with guns blazing and captured a gang of pirates who days earlier had hijacked a luxury cruise ship, the Ponant, and held the crew for ransom. This was the French solution to a crime wave that has threatened international shipping off Somalia; those of us who have been on the business end of a pirateÂ’s gun can only applaud their action.

The British government on the other hand, to the incredulity of many in the maritime industry, has taken a curiously pathetic approach to piracy. While the French were flying six of the captured pirates to Paris to face trial, the British Foreign Office issued a directive to the once vaunted Royal Navy not to detain any pirates, because doing so could violate their human rights. British warships patrolling the pirate-infested waters off Somalia were advised that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain and that those who were returned to Somalia faced beheading for murder or a hand chopped off for theft under Islamic law.

Excuse me! Piracy has been recognized as beyond the bounds of civilized behavior for millennia. No less than Julius Caesar led an expedition against pirates in his youth, punishing those captured as the criminals that they were -- and which their professional descendants remain. Indeed, traditional international law allows for nations to track down pirates anywhere and to dispense justice in a summary fashion -- tough more contemporary views require trial in regular courts rather than drumhead courts marital.

That the British have now adopted a policy of letting pirates go rather than risk nonsensical claims for asylum being granted under the nations absurdly liberal asylum laws is a sign of how far down the pike the Brits have gone in terms of coddling foreign criminals. Indeed, the concern that Muslim pirates might face penalties under Muslim laws in their Muslim country of origin seems equally absurd -- especially as powerful figures in Britain suggest that incorporation of sharia law into the UK legal system would be a positive step.

Who would have ever believed it -- the French are standing tough and the UK is waving the white flag in the war on piracy!

AND SPEAKING OF PIRATES AND THE LAW...

Posted by: Greg at 02:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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