EU Developments For Legal Framework to Fight Piracy

I'm really digging this blog. Yea, sorry, it is in French, but if you read French I think you'll find it worthy of exercising your skills daily. This post is very informative, highlighting the progress of the EU in development of an international legal framework for dealing with piracy off Somalia. Officially, the EU is calling it EUNAVFOR, officially called "Atalanta".

The translation below is mine, and my French is better when I'm drunk, so if I'm getting this all wrong it is my fault completely.

People who have committed or suspected of having committed acts of piracy or armed robbery apprehended and retained for the exercise of prosecutions in the territorial waters of Somalia or on the high seas, and goods used to perform these acts, are transferred:

- To the competent authorities of the Member State or State participating in the operation against the vessel, which carried out the capture, flies the flag or
- If the state can not or does not wish to exercise its jurisdiction, any Member State or to any third party state who wishes to exercise it on persons or property described above.

Yea its a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo, but basically, the EU is saying if you capture pirates and your state doesn't want to prosecute them because the laws in your state are too broken to deal with international piracy, then another European state whose laws actually work can prosecute the pirates for the nation who captured the pirates.

The law is being constructed leveraging the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, specifically Article 105: Seizure of a pirate ship or aircraft which states:

On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft, or a ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board. The courts of the State which carried out the seizure may decide upon the penalties to be imposed, and may also determine the action to be taken with regard to the ships, aircraft or property, subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith.

The EU is allowing itself to let any state do the prosecution or pirates based on its interpretation of the phrase "subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith." Maybe Eagle1 can fill in the blanks.

According to the blog, there is also a condition within the law:

"no person may be transferred to a third country if the conditions of the transfer have not been agreed with that country in a manner consistent with applicable international law, including international law human rights, in particular to ensure that no one shall be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading."

Other details include the establishment of a EU Command, which will be head up by Vice-Admiral Phillip Jones of the Royal Navy at a command center in Northwood (Great Britain). The zone of operation will be out to 500nm off any point of the coast of Somalia, and the duration will be one year from the start date, which may be sometime in December.

According to the blog, finalization of all details is expected on November 10th.