A Market Solution To Piracy?

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Only a lifelong academic could ever propose such a silly idea. The ownership of the seas, like that of the land, is determined by force. In this case, a small piece of the sea (a single ship) is controlled (or owned) by those with the power to own or control it. That may be the crew that took the ship from its previous harbor, a pirate crew that boarded it on the high seas, or a military force that "rescues" it from the pirates.
The problem of piracy can't be solved by a young professor declaring that Company X has bought the seas. Company X must have the physical power to control what the professors gives them a piece of paper claiming ownership. Since the seas are large and even the combined naval forces of the world's nations are relatively small in comparison, total control isn't practical.
Thus we have pirates -- or capitalists -- or incipient temporary governments.
For those who think this problem is easily solved, consider your own community. There are places where you may be robbed or beaten or murdered -- including in your own home -- because the many expensive governments we support do not have sufficient force to protect you everywhere you choose to go.

Fredric Dennis Williams of AZ 3:58PM April 18, 2009

Muser and Top Cat:
For a discussion about the matter of selling a currently unowned resource, specifically the moon in fact, you may want to consider this piece published by a law professor in Popular Mechanics last year:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4264325.html
So much for the claim that it's impossible to sell the moon . . . or the high seas.

Anon of VA 7:59AM April 15, 2009

This is one really stupid idea. No one can sell the high seas because no one owns the high seas.
The maritime principle of universal jurisdition is an attempt to resolve how countries can prosecute pirates who operate outside of jurisdictional boundaries.
It is unconscionable for shipping companies to allow their crews to be taken hostage. Muser of NM has a good idea.
Security details aboard cargo ships can easily dispatch pirates and make the price of business too steep for the pirates.
Let them hijack the shipwrecks on the ocean floor.

Top Cat of NC 4:18PM April 14, 2009

any more than you can sell lots on the moon.
What you can do is raise marine insurance rates enough that boats install security details on their boats because they become uninsurable any other way.

Muser of NM 3:12PM April 14, 2009