Legal Challenges and Prospects of Exercising the Jurisdiction of Iran in Combating Piracy, Highlighting the Training in the Field of Law of the Sea

In recent years, with the increase in piracy, some Iranian nationals and ships have also been attacked and damaged by pirates, and at the same time, a number of these pirates were also arrested by naval personnel and were transferred to our country for prosecution. Despite some legal challenges in the field of international and domestic law, Iran appears to have the jurisdiction to prosecute the arrested pirates. Although for some instances of this crime, the same or similar domestic laws can be found in Iran, but there is no comprehensive equivalent for this crime in Iranian law. And the criminal headings under domestic law are considered as an ordinary crime, not an international one. Therefore, regarding the inadequacy of the current criminal headings under Iran's penal codes, the criminalization of piracy in the domestic law is necessary and it imposes criminal jurisdiction over international crimes and it is an important tool in strengthening and consolidating national sovereignty and ending the impunity of the perpetrators. On the other hand, the training of naval personnel to combat the pirates in order to comply with the rules of the law of the sea is imperative. In this study, in addition to examining the domestic laws of Iran in exercising the jurisdiction over the pirates, while reviewing the performance of NEDAJA in combating the pirates, we provide the basis of awareness for the staff of NEDAJA in combating the pirates by implicitly teaching the rules of the law of the sea. The methodology of the research is explanatory-analytic and the method of data collection is library-documentary research.