Piracy, state structures and legal processes in Tanzania

This study was concerned with an investigation of Piracy, State structures and Legal processes in Tanzania. Although maritime piracy along the coasts of Africa was not a new phenomenon, recent upsurges in piratical acts have attracted a great deal of attention as far as maritime safety and security is concerned.The primary objective of this study was to identify the relationships among piracy, state structures and legal processes, and how they affect each other in Tanzania. The secondary objectives of this study are to examine the impact of piracy on rules of international law and domestic laws. This has been done in order to examine the gap between international law and domestic law in order to curb maritime piracy on the East African Coast.The study was carried out in Dar es Salaam city in various governmental institutions suchas Prisons, Police Marine Unit, Surface and Marine Transportation Regulatory Authority,the Director of Public Prosecutions office, and in various libraries.It was found that the varying levels of maritime piracy have a causal impact on the degree of effectiveness of state structures and legal processes. In this regard, the main law on maritime piracy is found in the Merchant Shipping Act 2003 and the Penal Code 1945 was amended in 2010 to suit the level of piracy prevailing situations by stated a definition of a pirate ship or aircraft consistent with the article 102 and 103 of the UNCLOS (1982). The study found the formulations of international and regional agencies in combating maritime piracy, for example the formation of the Djibouti Code of Conduct in 2009 that aimed at the investigation, prosecution and arrest of pirates and the interdiction and seizure of suspect ships.