The international legal scholar, Ruth Wedgewood, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, has written a practical and highly suggestive article recently published in The American Interest. Titled "The Law Adrift," it is about piracy and the legal mechanisms that can combat it. In the final analysis, what really can be done about it is almost all in the future.
Of course, Professor Wedgewood put her pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) long before the Somali holy warrior pirates captured the American ship and detained its captain until the U.S.Navy freed him by killing the brigands with sniper power. Other countries whose ships have been taken into captivity didn't have the fortitude to confront the corsairs directly. A forceful regime should be set up to deal with this ancient problem, and it is America as victor in this episode should take the lead.