Title: Piracy Trials

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Law Library of Congress (U.S.)

URL: http://www.loc.gov/law/help/piracy/piracy_trials.php

Date Checked: 9/2/2010      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 9/2/2010

Topics: Admiralty; International Law; Criminal Law

Other keywords: Law of the sea; Piracy

Contents: This digital library provides access to 57 works pertaining to piracy and the law from the collection of the Law Library of Congress. The publications range in date from 1696 through 1905 and contain accounts of piratical events, trials, confessions, and executions. These publications relate to many nations and locales, including the American colonies, the United States, Scotland, England, Jamaica, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, and France. Several of the books are in French or German. One standout title is the 1862 letter by Charles P. Daly, Chief Justice of the New York Court of Common Pleas and a former sailor, in which Daly argues that the Southern privateers who were attacking Northern ships during the U.S. Civil War should be considered prisoners of war—not pirates—because their actions constituted lawful warfare. These works are beneficial for studying piracy, international law, criminal law, and journalism and the law. Many of the books are rife with melodramatic language. All of the books can be downloaded as PDFs or viewed one image at a time on the Law Library of Congress website. High resolution images are available. Each book is linked to its Library of Congress catalog record.

Author of Annotation: I. Haight