In Pirates of the Caribbean, Commodore Loring, as soon as he determines Jack Sparrow’s identity, orders him hanged as a known pirate. But Jamaica was a British colony under British law. Not even the king could do that. Sparrow would have to be given a fair trial and his guilt in some specific criminal act proven before he could be hanged. And Governor Swann, who presumably knows the law, is standing right there – how could he allow it? So I (a lawyer) thought. Did the Royal Navy actually have some extraordinary legal powers to deal with pirates in that period?
And please don’t gimme no shit about raising a minor historical-legal quibble in connection with a plot that incorporates Aztec curses and undead pirates.
A WAG but Sparrow may have been previously tried, convicted, and sentenced to death but escaped before the sentence was carried out. So there would be an outstanding order for his execution.
I think pirates were governed by maritime law, not English civil law, and pirates were open to hanging out of hand, if I’m not mistaken.
My readings in other age of sail ficiton (O’Brian, Forester), give me the distinct impression that ship captains could hang suspected pirates without trial as late at 1814.
Not only that, but Sparrow lives in a world where magic exists and men can be cursed into the undead. It’s safe to figure this world also has slightly different rules about what to do with pirates.
Flippant answer aside, note at the end the list of charges being read off before the hanging. Those had to come from somewhere, so it’s likely he’d either been tried and convicted in the past and simply hadn’t gotten his sentence yet, or they ran him through a trial before putting him on the gallows, and that was simply not shown on screen.
In the second movie they’re hanging alleged pirate men, women and children by the dozens, at the behest of the East India Company. Clearly due process and fair trials are not the order of the day.
I was going to mention this. So much of what goes on at the Commodore’s request is dubious at best and treason at worst that I really don’t think he cared about the legal details.
He’s been branded by the East India Company as a pirate. Literally - when he and Norrington (not Loring) first meet, Norrington pulls up his sleeve and reveals the brand in his forearm. My impression is that having this brand meant you’d already been caught and sentenced to die. Jack, apparently, had managed to escape the first time.
I don’t think so. Branding, when used, would have been to identify a criminal to others after letting him go – not something you would bother to do to a convict who was about to be hanged.
Sorry, I totally missed this in my first post. It’s still a valid point, though; you can’t necessarily assume everything in that world is exactly the same as ours except for the minor detail of magic.
Yeah. Doesn’t the guy reading the charges say specifically that they are in a temporary state of not applying the Habeas Corpus?
Brainglutton, I think that, very ironically, you are trying to nitpick the single one fact from the POTC saga where some actual thought process was applied.
