A Research On The Legal Issues Of Pirates Ransom

In 2008, the United Nations Security Council authorized Member States to crack down Somali pirates. Then, the UN Security Council held an open meeting in 2009. At that meeting, Resolution No.1897 was adopted. It was decided to extend to November 30,2010, the powers which have been authorized by Resolution No.1846 and 1851 to the Member States and the regional organizations to cooperate with the Somali Transitional Federal Government in fighting against the piracy and armed robbery in the Somali waters. In recent years, dozens of countries rescued a number of merchant ships and crew members by the way of escort and mutual cooperation. It achieved certain results. However, we have to admit that piracy still attacks at times and often succeed. The report submitted by the Monitoring Group on Somalia shows that ransom which has been paid to the pirates continue to increase and the arms embargo to Somalia failed to be implemented effectively. These facts encouraged the piracy acts along the coast of Somalia.The world shipping industry is facing huge pressure. If vessels, cargo or crew members were hijacked and the relevant governments or organizations failed to rescue, most of the shipowners or cargo owners would have to choose to negotiate with the pirates and to pay the ransom, for the safety of the vessel, cargo and hostages. However, the amount of ransom in many cases is very huge, which also relates to many other peoples'the interests. This paper, focusing on the rampant piracy in reality and combining the relevant theory and practice, is aimed to analyze in depth the relationship among piracy ransom, general average and marine insurance and to analyze each party's responsibility and interests, in order to provide some advice and reference for the related theory and practice in our country.Besides the preface and the conclusion, this article consists of three chapters. Chapter One contains an overview of the piracy ransom, In this part a research is made on both the related cases and information, and discussions are followed on the concept of piracy, the harmfulness of piracy, the distinction between piracy acts and other similar acts and the concept, the characteristics and all other basic issues in relation to piracy ransom, In addition, this part also analyzes in depth the legality of the payment of piracy ransom.Chapter Two is on piracy ransom and general average. Starting from discussion on the nature of the piracy ransom, this part mainly analyzes the possibility of inclusion of the piracy ransom into general average, and analyzes the existing problems to include the piracy ransom into general average.Chapter Three is on piracy ransom and marine insurance. This part mainly from the angle of insurance analyzes whether or not the piracy ransom may be covered by the current insurance system, and the solutions to solve the problem of piracy ransom.