This informative study provides a comprehensive approach to an age-old disruption of the order of the oceans. Many of the norms proscribing piratical acts that are codified in contemporary international law are vestiges of earlier periods. Yet, contemporary maritime piracy is more complex and intense. The International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce reported 439 reports of actual piracy attacks in 2011, mostly Somali based, and a higher number of attempts. This book presents perspectives on the problem, offered by contributors from four continents, diverse legal cultures, and multiple disciplines. The book appraises piracy from the comparative perspectives of those disciplines and from the standpoint of key participants in the social processes that are plagued by piracy-mariners, navies, ship owners and operators, policy makers, and lawyers. Decision making and operational measures cannot be separated from piracy's origins and continuing social impact. Thus, the contributors bring clarity to the problem through the lenses of history, development, law, maritime security, fisheries, economics, and ocean commerce. Maritime piracy initiatives are generating a great number of operational and institutional countermeasures, and the diversity of stakeholder interests often complicates proposed solutions. Against that backdrop, the contributors examine strategies - the range of available modalities to address and correct the problem - through the lenses of naval power, port state control, penal systems, and development. And, they appraise law - both national and international authoritative decision making - viewing state practice, international regulations, tribunal judgments, custom, and international conventions, from the comparative perspectives of Africa, India, England, France and the United States. The book is a collaboration of the Center for Maritime and Oceanic Law (CDMO) of the University of Nantes (France) and the Center for Oceans and Coastal Law of the University of Maine School of Law (US).