The Paths Not Taken?

The introductory section examines the similarities between the prosecution dilemmas posed by the successive piracy crises off the coasts of Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea. Section 1 analyses how the prosecution-related shortcomings of universal jurisdiction and of the international treaty regime currently applicable to the crime of piracy have been compounded by domestic legal and structural factors affecting littoral states in the east and west Africa coasts. Section 2 follows by examining the role of crises as tipping points for international adjudication and introducing central concepts of the analytical tradition of ‘historical institutionalism’ such as ‘critical juncture’ or ‘path-dependence’. Section 3 then applies these analytical tools as it reviews the pros and cons of the main international, hybrid and nationally assisted adjudicative alternatives for the prosecution of the crime of piracy, which it divides into the categories of ‘ad hoc’ and ‘permanent’ solutions, and examines their potential applicability to the escalating piracy crisis in the Gulf of Guinea. The conclusion recaps the main findings of the article and highlights how the elusive quest for international adjudication of the crime of piracy in Africa illustrates the veiled, yet pervasive, influence of path-dependence on international adjudicative-setting processes.