Bret Stephens finds it ridiculous that we’re talking about piracy on the open seas as though it’s something new, or that we can’t learn from history.
By the 18th century, pirates knew exactly where they stood in relation to the law. A legal dictionary of the day spelled it out: “A piracy attempted on the Ocean, if the Pirates are overcome, the Takers may immediately inflict a Punishment by hanging them up at the Main-yard End; though this is understood where no legal judgment may be obtained.”
Severe as the penalty may now seem (albeit necessary, since captured pirates were too dangerous to keep aboard on lengthy sea voyages), it succeeded in mostly eliminating piracy by the late 19th century — a civilizational achievement no less great than the elimination of smallpox a century later.
The problem? Simple, says Stephens, it’s our hand-wringing legalese international community. The U.S. claims “that there is no controlling legal authority,” so that as long as the Somali pirates don’t attack U.S. ships they can’t do anything. NATO has declined to act. And the United Nations, useless as ever, has managed to create legal nightmares (such as requiring the pact-signing nations to first send boarding parties in lieu of military action) that actually make less likely that a lawful nation’s warship would ever interfere in the activities of piracy.