Maritime law cannot enforce itself

The conclusion turns from the 1939-1940 cases to the South China Sea, Strait of Hormuz, Falkland Islands, counter-narcotics operations against semi-submersibles, and the polar regions. Much maritime law remains customary or only partly codified instead of forming a complete written code. A treaty is effective only when its signatories or an international institution possess both the capacity and political will to enforce it. The discussion questions whether weakened collective institutions can reliably impose those rules when national interests conflict. The historical incidents show a democratically accountable navy treating legal restraint as conditional when leaders believed victory or security required action.