Prosecuting Pirates: The Contact Group on Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia, Governance and International Law

This paper authored by Douglas Guilfoyle was originally published in 2013 in the journal Global Policy 4 (1): 73–79. Drawing on a reflection of his own participation in Working Group 2 of the CGPCS Guilfoyle discusses the decentralised nature of the response to Somali piracy and the role of WG2 as a mechanism for coordinating piracy prosecutions. The article reviews the applicable international law and available options. It suggests that WG2 has had a discernible influence in promoting the decentralised use of national courts over the creation of a stand-alone international piracy court. It then reflects on WG2 as an example of a ‘new governance’ coordination mechanism.

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