해적방지를 위한 국제적 동향과 우리나라 관련법제의 개선방안

Abstract

Growing international attention has been drawn to the threat of maritime piracy. In 2003, 445 attacks on shipping was reported worldwide. The majority of all piracy incidents occur in Asian waters, which is the most important shipping lane in the global trade. Since more than 90 percent of the world's commerce moves by ship, the rash of piratical incident threatens the safe and efficient maritime traffic and resultingly impede global trade. As the current form of international piracy deserves more attention from law enforcement and security agencies, international community needs to frame a coordinated strategy to combat piracy. Nevertheless, there are no serious efforts to curb piracy due to territorial sovereignty of each country, restrictions against hot pursuit, jurisdictional problems and lack of superpower to conduct the joint patrol of the high seas and international shipping lanes. Korean government has been very active in an effort to combat piracy and played a major role to construct a framework for regional common efforts. However, Korean laws regarding piracy need to be revised to accept the universality principles of international laws and resolutions. Measures for regional cooperation on future anti-piracy are also essential because the piracy attack has the potential to negatively affect the regional economic prosperity.