2021-12-17 What happens if you break an international law? – International Law explainers

TRANSCRIPT

Let’s say you’ve broken international law. What next?

Well, it depends.

Quite often, nothing happens at all.

Pursuing justice takes time and money, but sometimes things do happen.

Let’s imagine you’re a state that invades another.

You’ve broken one of the most fundamental international laws and committed the crime of aggression.

You can expect sanctions or maybe even military intervention.

Now, let’s say you’re an individual who’s committed a war crime.

You personally might be tried at an international court:

this can take decades and requires the help of your own country.

And what if you’re an energy company that has spilled oil in the sea around another country?

Then this might be a case for private international law and your company could face fines and punishment.

International laws are sometimes broken because of the problem of effectively enforcing them, but they’re there to guide us for when things do go wrong.