Piracy Definition Essay

Piracy is absolutely a question of definition. Those in power were able to determine what was and what wasn’t piracy, giving them power to do exactly what these “pirates” were doing with no repercussions. Since there is no agreed on universal definition for piracy, there are constantly differing interpretations about what constitutes a pirate. In “Towards General Theory of Piracy”, Shannon Lee Dawdy and Joe Bonni note all the perceptions of piracy and pirates, varying from “splendid villains,” “common enemies of mankind,”, “an alternative to civilization,” “enemies of no one and the enemies of everyone”, “undeclared war”, “violent maritime predation,” “indiscriminate taking of property with violence”, “tribute taking,” “commerce raiding,” “taxing foreigners by force”, to “business”(Dawdy 675). Clearly, there's not much agreement among scholarly communities about the definition of piracy. With no hard and fast rule about the definition of piracy, lawmakers could consider nearly anyone …show more content…
“This structure is always unevenly rigged, for such authorities have had an inordinate power both to define what counts as piracy and to weigh in on who may be called a pirate (Gaynor 821)”. This articulates my assertion, in that something is piracy if whoever is in charge calls it piracy, and that’s it. She goes on to say, “[The way pirates are classified] greatly depends, in the present as in the past, on how legality and legitimacy are constituted and claimed in relation to sovereignty (Gaynor 822)”. Since the ocean isn’t necessarily easy to police and maritime laws were hard to create and enforce, punishment of pirates seemed like it was really determined by whoever caught them. The unofficial policing and prosecution of piracy was largely enforced by states who felt threatened by pirates and would do what they needed to stop