Maritime piracy – a legal and practical overview


Now, Michael Ritter, of HFW, provides a legal view of how to handle a piracy incident


Recent incidents have re-directed the piracy spotlight back onto Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. The last four years saw a shift in attention to the Gulf of Guinea and the Sulu Sea (Philippines) with the last successful hijack of a commercial vessel by Somali pirates being May 2012. A small number of incidents close to the Yemeni coast since last year, including an attack on Swift 1 in October 2016, were distinguished from piracy, as the acts of Houthi rebels.