Part 2 provides a brief history of the evolution of legal rules pertaining to piracy and armed robbery at sea. Piracy ranks among one of the old subject matters of public international law and contemporary rules on piracy laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have thus a long history. UNCLOS is traditionally perceived to reflect a subtle balance of extensively negotiated compromises that is only acceptable to States parties as a package deal. Thus, a widely held perception is that a modification of singular elements or even entire sections would off-set the...

Part 2 provides a brief history of the evolution of legal rules pertaining to piracy and armed robbery at sea. Piracy ranks among one of the old subject matters of public international law and contemporary rules on piracy laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have thus a long history. UNCLOS is traditionally perceived to reflect a subtle balance of extensively negotiated compromises that is only acceptable to States parties as a package deal. Thus, a widely held perception is that a modification of singular elements or even entire sections would off-set the negotiated compromise and would necessitate modifications of UNCLOS in its entirety. For the time being, States appear to be strongly committed to uphold this package-deal.