The New "Jamaica Discipline": Problems with Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea
![handle is hein.journals/conjil6 and id is 133 raw text is: THE NEW JAMAICA DISCIPLINE:
PROBLEMS WITH PIRACY, MARITIME
TERRORISM AND THE 1982 CONVENTION ON
THE LAW OF THE SEA
by Samuel Pyeatt Menefee*
JAMAICA DISCIPLINE. The regulated distribution of booty
among the crew of a pirate: nautical coil.: C.19-20; ob. .. .
INTRODUCTION
To an 18th-century seafarer, Jamaica discipline represented the
temptation to go a-pirating. Far from being the chaos and anarchy rep-
resented in the grade B movies of our youth, piracy was a business, and
the pirate was as conscious of his obligations and rights as any Mafia
capo. For the captains and sailors who crossed the line of legality to go
on the account,2 the articles of Jamaica discipline - while differing
* J.D. Harvard Law School; LL.M. (Oceans) University of Virginia School of Law. Maury
Fellow, Center for Oceans Law and Policy, and Senior Associate, Center for National Security
Law, University of Virginia School of Law. Chairman, Maritime Law Association's Committee on
the International Law of the Sea's Subcommittee on the Law of the Sea, and of the American Bar
Association's Law of the Sea Committee's Subcommittee on Naval Warfare, Maritime Terrorism,
and Piracy; member American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Se-
curity's Working Group on Terrorism and of the International Law Association's American
Branch Committee on International Terrorism. The views expressed herein are those of the author
alone.
I. E. PARTRIDGE, A DICTIONARY OF SLANG AND UNCONVENTIONAL ENGLISH 433 (1967
[1937]) (6th ed.). See also L.P. LOVETTE. NAVAL CUSTOMS TRADITIONS AND USAGE 242 (1939):
Jamaica Discipline. A name for the Articles for the Government of Pirate Ships,
in the eighteenth century. The articles stipulated that the captain took two shares of all
stolen booty, the officers one and one-half and one and one-quarter, depending upon rank,
while all the crew shared alike. In order to prevent quarrels and brawls aboard ship,
gambling and the bringing of women aboard ship was prohibited. Indulgence in strong
drink could only take place on deck after 8:00 P.M.
Id. For examples of the Pirate Compacts of Roberts, Lowther, and Phillips, see RALPH T. WARD.
PIRATES IN HISTORY 186-89 (1974).
2. See C.M. SENIOR. A NATION OF PIRATES: ENGLISH PIRACY IN ITS HEYDAY 13 (1976). See
also RALPH T. WARD, supra note 1, at 102; WA. McEwEN AND A.H. LEWIS, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
NAUTICAL KNOWLEDGE 4 (1953).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/conjil6&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The New "Jamaica Discipline": Problems with Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea
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