The importance of historical fidelity in the application and interpretation of the law of naval warfare

Abstract

This thesis by publication seeks to distil from a series of published works an answer to the following question: How and why should selected law of naval warfare (LoNW) concepts and rules be interpreted and applied differently to shared law of armed conflict, and/or law of the sea, concepts and regimes? The purpose of the thesis in answering this question is, ultimately, to discern practical guidance on 'how to do LoNW'. The thesis argument distils an answer to this question by identifying, linking, and assessing the implications of a series of issues as raised in the published material within the thesis. As a result of distilling, linking, and structuring the implications and key themes from these six published artefacts, the thesis identifies both exceptionalist and integrationist requirements in the interpretation and application of LoNW. The thesis also identifies some guardrails necessary to police against inappropriate, and de jure illegitimate, leakage of LoNW back across into other legal rule sets such as NIAC LOAC and 'grey zone' operations. Show more