PIRATE, one who sails the seas for the purpose of rubbery, whether in command of a ship or as one of the crew; a highwayman of the sea; a freebooter, or buccaneer. Piracy is the term applied to the crime of robbery coin pitted upon the high seas. It is an offense against the universal law of society. As the pirate has renounced all the benefits of society and government and has reduced himself to the savage state of nature, by declaring war against all mankind, all mankind must declare war against him; so that every community has a right, by the rule of self-defense, to inflict that punishment upon him which every individ ual would, in a state of nature, otherwise have been entitled to do for any invasion of his person or personal property. By various stat utes in England and the United States other offenses are made piracy. Thus, if a subject of either of these nations commits any act of hostility against a fellow-subject on the high seas, under color of a commission from any foreign power, this is an act of piracy. So, if any captain of any vessel, or mariner, run away with the vessel, or the cargo, or yield them up to a pirate voluntarily, or of any seaman lay violent hands on his commander, to hinder him from fighting in defense of the ship or goods committed to his charge or make a revolt in the ship, these offenses are acts of piracy by the laws of England. By statute of George II the ransoming of any neutral vessel, which has been taken as a nrize, by the commander of a private ship of war, is declared to be piracy. By the act of Parliament, passed in 1824, the slave-trade is also declared to be piracy. In the time of Richard I, all infidels were regarded as pirates and their property was liable to seizure wherever found. By the law of nations the taking of goods by piracy does not divest the actual owner of the prop erty. Piracy, with intent to murder, stab or
wound, is capital and pirates can gain no rights by conquest. It is of no importance, for the purpose of giving jurisdiction in cases of piracy, on whom or where a piratical offense is com mitted. A pirate, who is one by the law of nations, may he tried and punished in any country where he may he found; for he is re puted to be out of the protection of all laws. But if the statute of any government declares an offense, committed on board one of its own vessels, to be piracy, such an offense will be punished exclusively by the nation which passes the statute. In England the offense was formerly cognizable only by the admiralty courts, which proceeded without a jury, in a method founded upon the civil law. In the United States piracy is tried in the Federal courts.
Piracy, in the common sense of the word, is distinguished from privateering by the circum stance that the pirate sails without any commis sion and under no national flag and attacks the subjects of all nations alike; the privateer acts under a commission from a belligerent power, which authorizes him to attack, plunder and de stroy the vessels which he may encounter be longing to the hostile state. He is not re garded as a pirate by the laws of nations, but in accordance with these is bound to observe certain rules and restrictions. Thus, he is debarred from attacking the vessels of the enemy while lying in any port or haven under the protection of a friendly or neutral state. It was held by many experts in international law that the U-boats of Germany, though com missioned by their governments, were engaged in piracy whenever they attacked neutral ves sels. See NEUTRALITY.