Antipiracy Law

In this article, “Rationality, Pirates, and the Law: A Retrospective”, the author, Peter T. Leeson, discusses the legal changes that brought Caribbean piracy in the 1720s to an end, and their overall effectiveness. In the article he also discusses the pirates response to these legal changes. The different topics that he is recounting allows him to use the information that he gathers to use the law to address present day pirates. The author is able to effectively gather this information by using first-hand sources from people like Jamaica's governor. He writes the article in an outline format which allows him to place the information under its respective heading, and this is an effective way to present all of inforamtion. The first header that he creates is “Antipiracy Law Before 1700”. In this section of the paper he discusses the heavily flawed pre-1536 law relating to piracy. He then goes on to say that under the Offense of the Sea Act a pirate will go before a jury of 12 peers in England’s courts. The author argues that this step to combat piracy was also flawed because it did not allow a practical way for the English colonies to handle the pirates, the colonies could not try the pirates themselves, …show more content…
In this section, he talks about the additions that were added to the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy act and also provided an excerpt from the Act. This section also states how under this there are differences on how the pirate was judged depending on whether they were in England or one of the English colonies, and also mentions how under the Act people who sympathize with pirates will receive the same punishment of the accused pirate, Under this new Act merchantmen were encouraged and rewarded for defending themselves against pirate attacks. This section also talk about how in 1721 the anti-piracy laws were strengthened again, and now merchantmen who did not act against pirates were also