International public law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

International public law - Essay Example As per† Michael P. Scharf â€Å"(1995), for more than five centuries, governments have opted universal jurisdiction over piracy on the high seas2. This research essay will make an attempt how universal jurisdiction can be applied by the piracy affected States in apprehending and sentencing the pirates despite of their laws may impede the same. Of late, courts around the globe have banked upon universal jurisdiction (hereinafter will be referred as UJ) which is being used to defend proceedings against supposed perpetrators of crimes on international sea waters. The doctrine of UJ explains that a country can initiate legal action to indict offences to which it has no link or connection at all- the jurisdiction will be footed upon purely on the extraordinary barbarousness of the said conduct. As per UJ, any country can initiate legal action for universal offenses, not taking into consideration at all the objection of the victims and defendants’ home nations. However, there is no globally codified definition of UJ, the notion, it has been signified, allows nations under international law to initiate legal action on some offenses that are committed in foreign nations, in spite of any link with crime and in the absence of any nexus provided by other grounds of prescriptive jurisdiction acknowledged by international law. An assertion of UJ can usher conflict and possibly create hostility among nations since it can be assumed as an encroachment on the sovereign authority of the nation that has traditional prerogative or jurisdiction over the offense3. For many hundreds of years, UJ was made applicable to only to piracy offenses. Proponents of UJ have tried to establish its legality by invoking piracy as a precedent, inspiration and justification4. As per Randall, under UJ, any state is having the right to punish an offender