Washington University Global Studies Law Review Volume 15 Issue 2 2016 The Human Rights of Sea Pirates: Will the European Court of Human Rights Decisions Get More Killed? Barry Hart Dubner Barry University Brian Otero Barry University Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies Part of the Admiralty Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Barry Hart Dubner and Brian Otero, The Human Rights of Sea Pirates: Will the European Court of Human Rights Decisions Get More Killed?, 15 WASH. U. GLOBAL STUD. L. REV. 215 (2016), https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol15/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Global Studies Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Washington University Global Studies Law Review VOLUME 15 NUMBER 2 2016 THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF SEA PIRATES: WILL THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS DECISIONS GET MORE KILLED? BARRY HART DUBNER BRIAN OTERO I. INTRODUCTION The tide of piracy off the coast of Somalia has ebbed according to recent statistics.1 Perhaps it is just in time. Three decisions involving pirates, who were found to be deprived of their human rights by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Mauritius and a Danish law, are rather troubling in at least two different ways: (1) These decisions set pirates free after they were brought to justice; and (2), which is more problematic, pirates may now be subject to summary execution because of frustrated governments and innocent seafarers.