Modern maritime piracy: The anti-piracy professionals’ consciousness of the hard and soft law regulating anti-piracy operations.

Abstract: This masters’ thesis in Sociology of Law is a study on the legal consciousness of state agents and private individuals working in the anti-piracy domain. The aim of the research is to examine the anti-piracy professionals’ level of training in and awareness of relevant laws. Understanding that the applicable hard and soft anti-piracy law is complex, and depicting the current level of legal training and awareness of anti-piracy professionals, are the first steps to be taken in order to reform their training, if needed, and result in a better awareness of law. In order to explain this complexity of laws regulating anti-piracy, the legal pluralism theory, namely Menski’s kite model with its four corners of lawmaking sources - nature; society; state law; and international law and human rights law - is applied. The research methods used are: survey research; in-depth interviews; and content analysis of documents.