Jurisdiction of Iranian Courts over the Piracy

In the absence of an international court with jurisdiction over the perpetrators of piracy, these are the domestic courts that establish their jurisdiction over it. In recent years, many countries have enacted laws or revised their laws for the trial of pirates. Concerning Iran, the criminal courts are competent to try these offenders on the basis of territorial, universal and personal (active or passive) principles in certain cases. But, in other cases, this jurisdiction is not applicable to piracy. This paper shows that, like some other legislation, the Iranian laws must be revised in order to be applicable to all kind of pirecies perpetrated in our era.