Abstract
The concept of “piracy” meaning acts of depredation on the high seas not licensed by a political power with which normal intercourse was at least from time to time maintained is to be found in ancient writings known to Medieval and Renaissance Europe.1 It is not clear that all, or, indeed, any such acts were considered violations of law in the ancient world,2 although, of course, punitive or suppressive expeditions were sent against freebooters from time to time.
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Notes
W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law (London, 1922-1928), Vol. I, pp. 550, 553 note 6 et seq. The practice is the subject of some comment by Cockburn, C. J., in R.v. Keyn (”The Franconia”) (1876) 2 Ex. Div. 163-167.
W. Wynn, The Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins... (London, 1724), Vol. I, pp. lxxxv et seq. Jenkins was a very influential Judge of the Court of Admiralty of England, Ireland and the Cinque Ports and Privy Counsellor. See also Jenkins’s charge to a Southwark Jury dated February 18, 1680, 167 E.R. 561, Burrell 255.
Christopher H. Wake, “Malacca’s Early Kings and the Reception of Islam,” 5(2) Journal of Southeast Asian History (hereinafter cited as JSAH) 104 et seq..
P. E. de Josselin de Jong and H. L. A. van Wijk, “The Malacca Sultanate,” 1(2) JSAH 20 at p. 29 (excerpt from J. de Barros, Decadas da Asia fed. of 1553)).
Tomè Pires, Suma Oriental (A. Cortesaõ transi, and ed.) ed. of 1512-1515 (London. 1944) Vol. II. pp. 256–257.
The growing rivalry between Portugese Malacca and Atjeh is traced in Frederick C. Danvers, The Portuguese in India (London, 1894), Vol. I, pp. 344 et seq.
The early accounts mention several co-located factories. See, e.g., anonymous account of Sir James Lancaster’s third voyage (1601-1603) in Purchas, loc. cit., Vol. Ill, pp. 147 et seq.; Sir William Foster, ed., The Voyages of Sir James Lancaster (London, 1940) pp. 75 et seq. esp. pp. 90 et seq.; R. A. C. de Renneville, Recueil des Voyages... (Amsterdam, 1702), Vol. I, pp. 305 et seq.
Dutch and English voyages into the Malayan area began only at the end of the sixteenth century. By 1623 the rivalries had reached a peak with the Amboina massacre. See D. K. Bassett, “The’ Amboyna Massacre’ of 1623,” 1(2) JSAH (1960) 1. A good summary of Dutch-Portuguese rivalry at this time is in Purchas, loc. cit., Vol. V, pp. 197-226.
Balthasar Bort, “Report of Balthasar Bort on Malacca, 1678” (Bremner, transi.) 5(1) JRASMB (1927) 1 at pp. 180–183.
Bort, loc. cit.y p. 187. See also H. B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China (Oxford, 1926-1929), Vol. I, pp. 44 et seq.
Id., Vol. II, p. 60, Vol. III, p. 149; Dampier, loc. cit., Vol. II, p. 38; Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, ed. of 1727 (London, 1930), Vol. II, pp. 82, 84.
The British were at war in Europe with Denmark, which was allied with Napoleon, at the time. H. A. L. Fisher, A History of Europe (London, 1936), p. 878; A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (London, 1892), Vol. II, p. 277.
J. Low, “An Account of the Origin and Progress of the British Colonies in the Straits of Malacca” 4 Logan’s Journal (1850) 17.
Anderson, Acheen, p. 45; C. D. Cowan, “Early Penang and the Rise of Singapore, 1805-1832” 23(2) JRASMB (1945) 1 at pp. 49–50.
J. B. Moore, Digest of International Law (Washington, 1906), Vol. I, p. 73; H. Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law (Cambridge, 1947), pp. 11-12.
Id., pp. 131, 144; C. E. Wurtzburg, Raffles of the Eastern Isles (London, 1954), pp. 508-509, 518. See C. A. Gibson-Hill, “Raffles, Acheh and the Order of the Golden Sword.” 29(1) JRASMB (1951) 1.
On the law of retorsion and reprisal in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries see Vattel, loc. cit., Bk. ii, secs. 341-354. Self-defense is discussed in id., secs. 49-53, 119-121; the classic formulation of that doctrine did not come until the British-American correspondence concerning the sinking of the Caroline by Canadian authorities in the United States in 1837. See R. Y. Jennings, “The Caroline and McLoed Cases,” 32 American Journal of International Law (1938) 82 et seq. The justifications for war at this period are noted in Butler and Maccoby, loc. cit., pp. 107 et seq.
Sir A. D. McNair, International Law Opinions (Cambridge, 1956), Vol. I, p. 270. This position was reiterated in 1879 but modified in 1881 to justify counter-action in Turkish territory apparently as a political measure-and without reference to the law of “piracy.” Id., Vol. II, pp. 273 et seq.
There have been many attempts, even in this century, to apply the legal consequences of the classification “piracy” to political acts. The most recent attempt to codify the customary international law of piracy (Article 15 of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas (1958)) provides that the depredation must be “committed for private ends.” It should be noted, however, that even this Convention has been justly criticized for its lack of precision. B. Forman, “International Law of Piracy,” 15 JAG Journal (1961) 143 et seq.
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Rubin, A.P. (1970). The Use of Piracy in Malayan Waters. In: Alexandrowicz, C.H. (eds) Studies in the History of the Law of Nations. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5985-4_8
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