소말리아 해적 사법처리 관련 문제점 및 향후 정책 추진방향: 국제협력 이론을 적용한 ‘잡았다 놓아주기’ 관행 분석을 중심으로

Rather than prosecuting the pirates captured for illegal activities, individual states have preferred the so-called ‘catch and release’ practice in which they simply release the pirates after taking simple measures such as collecting the weapons of the suspects. The main argument of this paper is that the pitfalls of the international legal framework, which is supposed to facilitate the prosecution of the somali pirates, has caused individual states to take passive measures. Unless these drawbacks are resolved, the goal of the international community to eradicate the somali piracy will not be easily realized. Based on the theoretical and empirical analysis, this paper make several recommendations. First of all, the South Korean government needs to actively participate in efforts to establish special courts to be responsible for somali pirates. Secondly, it is necessary for the government to make diplomatic moves to conclude bilateral treaties with countries nearby Somalia for transferring captured pirates. Lastly, the South Korean government needs to ensure the legal and managerial capacity to prosecute somali pirates in the country and to examine the legal status of pirates who have shown the intention to seek for political asylum in South Korea.