Revising Our Laws on the Maritime Slave Trade

Abstract

Slavery and the slave trade continue to exist in our time. This
Article evaluates and considers the relevance of U.S. laws concerning the
maritime slave trade and how they might usefully be adapted to twentyfirst
century situations. There are three potential areas in which revised
maritime slave trade legislation would be of use: (1) in curbing the

remnants of the classic slave trade, (2) in helping disrupt the organized
smuggling of refugees, and (3) in providing jurisdiction over maritime
hostage situations involving vessel passengers or crew.