I feel like the administration is going to have any legal backing, it will probably center on the rights of stateless vessels. Does the President have the right to use lethal force against pirates in international waters?
While sieze doesn’t mean sink explicitly, the argument is going to go to what acceptable force can be used against a stateless vessel not complying with an order to be boarded for inspection.
It is also international waters, not American soil. Legal protections in international waters are likely smaller than legal protections on American soil due to how international diplomacy created the law of the sea.
I feel like the administration is going to have any legal backing, it will probably center on the rights of stateless vessels. Does the President have the right to use lethal force against pirates in international waters?
The US has universal jurisdiction to prosecute pirates and to seize their vessels. Seize does not mean “sink.”
As far as I know, they don’t have a lot of facts in this case to spin into a “the bad guys escalated a law enforcement boarding operation” scenario.
While sieze doesn’t mean sink explicitly, the argument is going to go to what acceptable force can be used against a stateless vessel not complying with an order to be boarded for inspection.
It is also international waters, not American soil. Legal protections in international waters are likely smaller than legal protections on American soil due to how international diplomacy created the law of the sea.