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Neutrality at Sea in Practice: Rescue, Internment, and Warship Repairs in a Contemporary Naval Conflict

March 25, 2026

Recent naval incidents in the Indian Ocean involving Iranian warships, the United States, and regional coastal States have drawn renewed attention to a body of law often assumed to belong to another era: the law of neutrality at sea. Reports that an Iranian warship was sunk by a US submarine south of Sri Lanka, followed by the rapid rescue of survivors by nearby States, together with the docking and repair of another Iranian warship in an Indian port during ongoing hostilities, raise legal questions that classical neutrality law was intended to address, yet which rarely arise in contemporary discussions of naval warfare. These incidents suggest that the law of neutrality at sea — as reflected in the 1907 Hague Convention XIII and the Second Geneva Convention of 1949 — remains highly relevant in contemporary naval warfare. They draw attention, in particular, to the role of neutral States in rescue operations after naval engagements, the possible obligation to intern rescued belligerent personnel, and the limits imposed on repairs of…

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Attacks on dual-use objects and the prohibition of terrorising civilians: the attacks on Iran’s oil facilities

March 23, 2026

Late on Saturday, March 7, the Israeli military conducted a series of strikes against several oil storage facilities in and around Tehran, igniting large fires at the facilities. By the following morning, Iran’s capital was reported to be covered in thick smoke from the burning depots. Later on Sunday, reports emerged that “black” rain,…

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The Legality of the UK Permitting the US to Use British Bases to Stop Iranian Attacks on Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz

March 21, 2026

Yesterday, the UK Government announced a significant change in its policy of allowing the United States to use British military bases during its war on Iran, solely to stop Iranian attacks on countries in the Gulf – I previously examined that issue here, and there was also an extensive discussion in the comments…

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U.S.’s moves to label Brazilian crime syndicates as “terrorist organizations”: a prelude to the use of force?

March 18, 2026

On March 6th, 2026, the United States re-ignited their pressure on Brazil to designate two major Brazilian crime syndicates, PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) and Comando Vermelho, as “terrorist organizations”. In this post, I will introduce the U.S. practice to label Latin American drug syndicates “terrorist organizations”, and outline how this raises issues in relation…

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‘FL7726SH’: Between The Law of the Sea and the Jus ad Bellum?

March 11, 2026

In the morning of Wednesday 25 February 2026, a Cuban government vessel carrying five border guard troops approached a speedboat, registered in the U.S. as FL7726SH, after it had, according to Cuba’s Interior Ministry, entered its territorial waters in Falcones Cay, Villa Clara province. Upon being approached for identification by the Cuban vessel, the crew of the speedboat…

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