The Pirate Myth

Genealogies of an Imperial Concept

Amedeo Policante

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781138797314
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317632528
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: International Law
• Index: Law

The image of the pirate is at once spectral and ubiquitous. It haunts the imagination of international legal scholars, diplomats and statesmen involved in the war on terror. It returns in the headlines of international newspapers as an untimely 'security threat'. It materializes on the most provincial cinematic screen and the most acclaimed works of fiction. It casts its shadow over the liquid spatiality of the Net, where cyber-activists, file-sharers and a large part of the global youth are condemned as pirates, often embracing that definition with pride rather than resentment. Today, the pirate remains a powerful political icon, embodying at once the persistent nightmare of an anomic wilderness at the fringe of civilization, and the fantasy of a possible anarchic freedom beyond the rigid norms of the state and of the market. And yet, what are the origins of this persistent 'pirate myth' in the Western political imagination? Can we trace the historical trajectory that has charged this ambiguous figure with the emotional, political and imaginary tensions that continue to characterize it? What can we learn from the history of piracy and the ways in which it intertwines with the history of imperialism and international trade? Drawing on international law, political theory, and popular literature, The Pirate Myth offers an authoritative genealogy of this immortal political and cultural icon, showing that the history of piracy – the different ways in which pirates have been used, outlawed and suppressed by the major global powers, but also fantasized, imagined and romanticised by popular culture – can shed unexpected light on the different forms of violence that remain at the basis of our contemporary global order.

Law and the Postcolonial: Ethics, Politics, & Economy

Series edited by

Prof Denise Ferreira da Silva

Queen Mary, University of London

Dr Mark A. Harris

La Trobe University, Melbourne

Dr Brenna Bhandar

SOAS, University of London

Law and the Postcolonial: Ethics, Politics, & Economy seeks to expand the critical scope of racial, postcolonial, and global theory and analysis, focusing on how the global juridico-economic apparatus has been, and continues to be, shaped by the colonial and the racial structurings of power. It includes works that seek to move beyond the previous privileging of culture in considerations of racial and postcolonial subjectivity to offer a more comprehensive engagement with the legal, economic and moral issues of the global present.

Titles in this series include:

State Violence and the Execution of Law

Biopolitical Caesurae of Torture, Black Sites, Drones

Joseph Pugliese

The Pirate Myth

Genealogies of an Imperial Concept

Amedeo Policante

Forthcoming:

Puerto Rico and the Origins of U.S. Global Empire

The Disembodied Shade

Charles R. Venator-Santiago

Genocidal Democracy

Neoliberalism, Mass Incarceration, and the Politics of Urban Gun Violence

John D. Marquez

Postcolonial Capitalism

Justice, Global Labour and Racial Violence

Denise Ferreira da Silva and Rashne Limke

The Pirate Myth

Genealogies of an Imperial Concept

Amedeo Policante

First published 2015

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

a GlassHouse Book

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2015 Amedeo Policante

The right of Amedeo Policante to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

Policante, Amedeo, author.

The pirate myth : genealogies of an imperial concept / Amedeo Policante.

pages cm—(Law and the postcolonial)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-138-79731-4 (hardback)—ISBN 978-1-315-75722-3 (ebk) 1. Piracy (International law)—History. 2. Piracy—Law and legislation. 3. Piracy—Prevention—Law and legislation. 4. Terrorism—Prevention—Law and legislation. 5. Cyberterrorism—Law and legislation. I. Title.

KZ7212.P65 2015

364.16’4—dc23

2014027674

ISBN: 978-1-138-79731-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-75722-3 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315757223

Typeset in Baskerville

by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Note
• Introduction
• PART I Pirate figures (1400–1800)
  • 1. Persecutio piratarum: Pirate outlaws and the Roman Empire
    • A Mediterranean imperium
    • The pirate as hostis communis omnium
    • Persecutio piratarum and the forms of Imperial peace
  • 2. The Christian Commonwealth: Pirates, heretics and inquisitors
    • Imperium Christianus: Spanish Universalism and the conquest of America
    • Christianitas afflicta: The Atlantic wars of religion
    • Corsarios luteranos: Pirates and heresy
  • 3. Zones of plunder: Piracy and primitive accumulation
    • Beyond the line: Imperialism and the state of exception
    • Plunder as primitive accumulation
    • ‘Corsairs-capitalists’ and outlaw buccaneers
  • 4. Enemies of all nations: Piracy and the world-market
    • Freedoms of the sea: From global plunder to the world-market
    • Making the world safe for property: The pirate as hostis communis omnium
    • The golden age of piracy
  • Intermezzo: The romance of piracy
• PART II Pirate spectres (1800–2012)
  • 5. The empire of free trade: Liberal Universalism and the pirate states
    • World-market and global shipping: British imperium in the n...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Note
• Introduction
• PART I Pirate figures (1400–1800)
• PART II Pirate spectres (1800–2012)
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index