A subject of abiding interest.
Climateer, privateer, buccaneer, profiteer, have a beer grog.
From Marginal Revolution, March 17:
Representative Lance Gooden (R, TX) introduced a bill to authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal against certain Russians.
(a)…The President of the United States is authorized and requested to commission, under officially issued letters of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed and equipped persons and entities as, in the judgment of the President, the service may require, with suitable instructions to the leaders thereof, to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories any yacht, plane, or other asset of any Russian citizen who is on the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
(b) Security bonds.—No letter of marque and reprisal shall be issued by the President without requiring the posting of a security bond in such amount as the President shall determine is sufficient to ensure that the letter be executed according to the terms and conditions thereof.
Whether this is a good or idea or not depends on the quality of the list of specially designated nationals. I’m not a fan expropriating the assets of “oligarchs” just because they are Russian. On the other hand, it’s not as if other economic sanctions against Russia are well targeted. Much also depends on whether other nations will recognize letters of marque and reprisal as valid legal instruments, as they once did. Still this is a good chance to re-up my paper on privateers.
I took the liberty in this paper of violating the usual dry, style requirements....
....MUCH MORE, including some completely whack comments and the link to the paper.
Also Naval History Magazine.
Here's an article from Proceedings Vol. 146/2/1,406, April 2020:
U.S. Privateering Is Legal
Issuing letters of marque presents international legal risks—some real, others imagined—but these are manageable. Further, since a conflict with China might, to paraphrase Dean Acheson, threaten the power, position, and even the existence of the United States, the demands of the conflict would limit the salience of law.1
...MUCH MORE
(See also: Unleash the Privateers!)
It's a fine line between being a privateer and a pirate, it pretty much depends on who catches you.
"There! That's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky ones..."
