海商法视角内的海盗强索赎金问题

Issues in respect of ransom demanded by piracy from the perspective of maritime law

海盗劫持船舶已成为威胁国际航运安全的重要因素,大多数海盗劫持船舶事件最终都以向海盗缴纳赎金的方式解决。虽然海盗行为属于国际刑法的研究范畴,但海盗索取赎金的后果关乎船货双方的风险和损失分担问题,因此,有必要在海商法的视角内对此加以研究。根据海盗索取赎金时所指向的对象,赎金分为船货赎金、船员赎金和乘客赎金三类,应通过赎金的性质确定风险的最终承担者。

In recent years, the seizure of ships and crews has become an eminent factor which threatens the safety of international shipping industry. Most of the cases were solved by means of paying the ransom to the piracies by ship-owners whose ships have been seized. Though the act of piracy should be attributed to the research area of international criminal law, the outcomes for paying the ransom to piracies is closely connected with questions in respect of shearing the risks and distribution of the losses. Therefore, it is necessary to make a study on this issue from the perspective of maritime law. Ransom can be classified according to the object which the piracies are aiming at when they demand the ransom, into three categories, which are, for ships and goods, for crews and for passengers, and the bearer of loss should be determined in the light of nature of ransom.