In March 2009, the 44-foot pleasure yacht Mr. Bean (UK) was anchored off the Andaman Coast of Thailand when it was boarded by pirates in the dead of night.Footnote 4 The master of the vessel was bludgeoned to death and his body thrown overboard while his wife was tied up in the cabin for approximately ten hours before freeing herself and pointing rescuers in the direction of her assailants. Thai law enforcement officials apprehended the three pirates as they attempted to flee in the yacht's dinghy, and they were subsequently convicted of assault and murder in a Thai court.

This tragic narrative is typical of maritime crimes in Southeast Asia: opportunistic, small-scale, and occurring against smaller vessels anchored inside a country's territorial waters. While Somali piracy has received the majority of international press coverage, incidents like this are a stark reminder that the global maritime environment is easily exploited by criminals, and an effective response will always require a region-specific approach. This book is an essential guide for the ASEAN Member States,Footnote 5 their various government and law enforcement agencies, and regional legal practitioners to develop this required response framework for Southeast Asia.

The book skilfully draws the distinctions between maritime crimes in Southeast Asia and Somali piracy, and the Mr. Bean case highlights some of these differences. For example, the hit-and-run attack against the Mr. Bean occurred within the territorial waters of Thailand, with the pirates stealing only the yacht's food stores. Second, the pirates were quickly apprehended by effective law enforcement efforts and speedily brought to justice by a functioning government. In contrast, Somali piracy involves many pirates hijacking a large ship in international waters, kidnapping the crew, and holding both for ransom. Additionally, due to Somalia's status as a “failed state”, efforts to prosecute these pirates have been frustrated by its lack of an effective legal system. In fact, a recent United Nations report estimates that nine out of ten captured Somali pirates are neither prosecuted nor punished. While maritime experts do not expect piracy in the ASEAN region to reach the severity and scale of the attacks off the Horn of Africa, the international community's efforts to combat piracy in that region are helpful for understanding how best to respond to maritime crime in Southeast Asia and, above all else, demonstrate “the necessity of having an effective legal framework in place to combat maritime crime” (p. 4).

At its core, the book provides a clear roadmap for the ASEAN Member States to develop such a framework: first, ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 1979 International Convention against the Taking of Hostages (Hostages Convention), and the 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA) to provide a common analytical foundation; second, analyze the 1999 Financing of Terrorism Convention, the 2000 United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, and the 2003 United Nations Convention Against Corruption to determine if novel ways exist to capture maritime criminal financing; and third, consider entering into regional or bilateral agreements to support mutual legal assistance and the extradition of apprehended criminals. Legal scholars will also be intrigued by the book's compelling and piracy-focused analysis of UNCLOS, the Hostages Convention, the SUA Convention, and other, lesser known international instruments. Indeed, the book is excellent for this very reason, but its real value is that it so clearly explains both why and how the ASEAN Member States can respond to maritime criminal activity in the region. With the book's two parts (global and regional), the editors and authors conclusively demonstrate “that there is an array of global and regional instruments which, if ratified and effectively implemented by ASEAN states, can provide the foundation for an effective legal framework to combat piracy and other maritime crimes” (p. 6).

For example, while UNCLOS provides the basic framework for responding to piracy by both defining it and recognizing that all states have universal jurisdiction to arrest vessels for acts of piracy on the high seas, the “terrorism conventions” (the Hostages Convention and SUA) address key limitations in UNCLOS and supplement its piracy provisions. Given the way that these conventions complement and supplement each other, the editors and authors recommend that ASEAN Member States ratify and implement these conventions in order to better maintain maritime security. The book also provides an analysis of how lesser known conventions, such as the 1999 Financing of Terrorism Convention, could be adapted to arrest and prosecute persons who finance the hijacking of a ship or the taking hostage of crew members for ransom. Finally, the book discusses how various regional legal co-operation mechanisms, such as extradition and mutual legal assistance arrangements, are a critical component of any legal efforts to combat piracy and other maritime crimes. While each chapter discusses the same global conventions, the authors do so in a way that is specific to their topic area and the repetition greatly assists the reader in understanding the applicable authorities.

One of the most notable features of the book is its discussion of specific incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Southeast Asia. Readers will be delighted by Karsten von Hoesslin's chapter, which provides a fascinating analysis of three major areas in the ASEAN region where serious maritime crimes are being committed: the Sulu and Celebes Sea, the South China Sea, and the Singapore Straits. The author provides the reader with a unique perspective gathered from in-person interviews with law enforcement and criminal elements, on specific criminal activity, the types of vessels targeted in each area, and even how the monsoon weather patterns affect incidents of piracy and maritime crimes in the region. In sum, this book is an excellent and helpful source of information for the ASEAN Member States, their various government and law enforcement agencies, regional practitioners, and those interested in learning more about piracy in areas other than the Horn of Africa.