隨著世界貿易航線之延伸與拓展,海盜便此起彼伏,直至今日,海盜的問題依然存在。最近,索馬里海盜日益猖獗,引起各國的重視,為防止海盜活動的蔓延,於是先後派遣軍艦進行護航,保護往來亞丁灣的商船和貨船,這使得海盜事件產生出跨國性的問題。本文主要是討論清朝中葉後,西方殖民國家亦面臨著跨國性的海盜問題,尤其在中英鴉片戰爭之後,東亞海域的海盜活動更加嚴重。海盜的活動範圍,並無明顯的界線,海盜飄浮在東亞海域上,西方殖民為維護在華商業利益,必須追緝海盜,以致海盜案件產生司法管轄權與領海權等問題。
Piracy activities have evolved with world trade. Today, the pirates still exist. Recently, the Somali pirates rampant, attracted the attention of all countries, in order to prevent piracy activities, then sent the Navy to protect the merchant ship between the Gulf of Aden, making piracy activities become transnational issues. This article is mainly to discuss the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Western colonial countries are also facing piracy problems, especially after the Opium War, the East Asian waters piracy more serious. Western colonial countries to safeguard their own business interests, it must catch the pirates in the East Asian waters, so that piracy cases have jurisdiction and territorial rights issues.