If you commit some heinous crime against humanity ...

just throw them overboard

WTF kind of a question is this??

would depend on how many witnesses are around when you shove them overboard

The Hague I guess

Who ever catches you first?

It's rather complicated.

Legal authority
There are legal barriers to prosecuting individuals captured in international waters. Countries are struggling to apply existing maritime law, international law, and their own laws, which limits them to having jurisdiction over their own citizens. According to piracy experts, the goal is to "deter and disrupt" pirate activity, and pirates are often detained, interrogated, disarmed, and released. With millions of dollars at stake, pirates have little incentive to stop.

Prosecutions are rare for several reasons. Modern laws against piracy are almost non-existent. For example, the Dutch are using a 17th-century law against "sea robbery" to prosecute. Warships that capture pirates have no jurisdiction to try them, and NATO does not have a detention policy in place. Prosecutors have a hard time assembling witnesses and finding translators, and countries are reluctant to imprison pirates because they would be saddled with them upon their release.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]


I would suspect though that a crime committed on a regular ship would fall under the jurisdiction of the flag country.

Last Edited by Halcyon Dayz, FCD on 07/22/2009 11:52 PM

international criminal court

[link to www.icc-cpi.int]

AAAArrrrrggggg....walk the plank, matey!

Are you trying to bring up Admiralty Law in a roundabout way?