Editing Piracy (section)

===United Kingdom laws===
[[File:Target practice.jpg|thumb|right|A merchant seaman aboard a fleet oil tanker practices target shooting with a [[Remington 870]] 12 gauge shotgun as part of training to repel [[Piracy in the Strait of Malacca|pirates in the Strait of Malacca]], 1984]]
Section 2 of the [[Piracy Act 1837]] creates a statutory offence of aggravated piracy. See also the [[Piracy Act 1850]].

In 2008 the British [[Foreign Office]] advised the Royal Navy not to detain pirates of certain nationalities as they might be able to claim asylum in Britain under [[Human Rights Act 1998|British human rights legislation]], if their national laws included execution, or mutilation as a judicial punishment for crimes committed as pirates.<ref>{{cite news |first=Marie |last=Woolf |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/pirates-can-claim-uk-asylum-x9vzxzv2m6g |title=Pirates can claim UK asylum |work=[[The Sunday Times]] |date=April 13, 2008 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |location=London |archive-date=May 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517213935/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pirates-can-claim-uk-asylum-x9vzxzv2m6g |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Definition of piracy jure gentium====
See section 26 of, and Schedule 5 to, the [[Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1997]]. These provisions replace the Schedule to the [[Tokyo Convention Act 1967]]. In ''Cameron v HM Advocate'', 1971 SLT 333, the [[High Court of Justiciary]] said that that Schedule supplemented the existing law and did not seek to restrict the scope of the offence of piracy jure gentium.

See also:
*''Re Piracy Jure Gentium'' [1934] AC 586, [[Privy Council|PC]]
*''Attorney General of Hong Kong v Kwok-a-Sing'' (1873) LR 5 PC 179

====Jurisdiction====
See section 46(2) of the [[Senior Courts Act 1981]] and [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/41-42/73/section/6 section 6] of the [[Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act 1878]]. See also ''R v Kohn'' (1864) 4 F & F 68.

====Piracy committed by or against aircraft====

See section 5 of the [[Aviation Security Act 1982]].

====Sentence====
The book ''[[Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice|Archbold]]'' says that in a case that does not fall within section 2 of the Piracy Act 1837, the penalty appears to be determined by the [[Offences at Sea Act 1799]], which provides that offences committed at sea are liable to the same penalty as if they had been committed upon the shore.<ref>''[[Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice]]'', 1999, para. 25–46 at p. 1979</ref>

====History====
William Hawkins said that under [[common law]], piracy by a subject was esteemed to be [[petty treason]]. The [[Treason Act 1351]] provided that this was not petty treason.<ref>William Hawkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vZc0AAAAIAAJ ''Treatise of Pleas of the Crown''] (1824 ed.), vol. 1, chapter XIV.<!--Book citations don't really need an archive link--> See also 40 Ass. 35</ref>

In English [[admiralty law]], piracy was classified as petty treason during the medieval period, and offenders were accordingly liable to be [[hanged, drawn and quartered]] on conviction. Piracy was redefined as a [[felony]] during the reign of [[Henry VIII]]. In either case, piracy cases were cognizable in the courts of the Lord High Admiral. English judges in [[admiralty court]]s and [[vice admiralty court]]s emphasized that "neither Faith nor Oath is to be kept" with pirates; i.e. contracts with pirates and oaths sworn to them were not legally binding. Pirates were legally subject to [[summary execution]] by their captors if captured in battle. In practice, instances of summary justice and annulment of oaths and contracts involving pirates do not appear to have been common.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}