GENERAL OVERVIEW

Maritime crime refers to a broad class of criminal and quasicriminal behavior that is connected to recreational and commercial transportation involving ships (excluding aircraft). This includes conventional crimes (e.g., murder), special crimes (e.g., piracy), and other quasicriminal acts involving regulatory and public welfare offences under admiralty law (e.g., trade violations). Admiralty law consists of a body of common law rules, precepts, and practices that govern all transactions having a direct relationship with navigation or commerce on water.

Geographically, maritime crime can be divided into: (a) prohibitions involving local, recreational, and commercial sailing on internal waters; (b) illicit activity affecting navigation on the territorial sea; and, (c) illegalities that concern international seafaring on the high seas or foreign waters (see Box 1). This chapter examines maritime crime affecting international commercial seafaring because it involves 80 percent of world trade. Generally, most maritime crime involves the exploitation of legal and legislative weakness in the transportation system.

THE MARITIME TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

To understand how the system can be exploited it is necessary to consider the legal authority of flag states and enforcement that create opportunities for maritime crime.