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International law also means there is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker but we are still intending to do against that
greentricky-
The UK govt had a hand in designing the current world order, and they seem intent on undermining its credibility at every stage. It’s not clear what designs they would have instead of the current ones.
The historical foundations of international law are custom and convention. It’s basically a big neighbourhood where countries acknowledge that they’re all equal and entitled to act freely (sovereignty) but they agree to act according to how everyone else acts (custom), and according to what they explicitly agree (convention). When a big successful neighbour starts ignoring the rules without consequences, it can cause ripples. At ‘best’, everyone realises that they can’t really trust their neighbour’s word on important issues (nukes) anymore, if they disdainfully reject their obligations on the small stuff (asylum seekers, diplomatic obligations etc). At ‘worst’, the local groups that the neighbour is part of take a reputational hit and start to lose adherents, and it starts a downward trend until no one really cares control their behaviour if there isn’t a strong effective consequence. Since every neighbour is entitled to do whatever they want with themselves, including become a recluse, the neighbourhood can only really punish the bad neighbour by refusing to do business with them, but then that neighbour’s partners would protest and it all gets messy.
There will always be people pushing the boundaries of what’s allowed and what’s not. On certain issues like international law, it’s dangerous to allow those challenges to go unchecked. For better or worse, the UK has a seat on the UN Security Council and has the US on its side. However, to misquote Palmerston, the US has no permanent friendships, only permanent interests, and it would be foolish to think that there aren’t forces in the US that would happily capitalise on an isolated, delegitimised and dependent UK.
Eseman
Isn’t there some kind of UN Law of the sea which requires ships to rescue people and requires countries with sea borders to establish search and rescue facilities which includes conducting those rescued at sea to a safe place? Can’t be arsed to Google it but surely that would protect any search and rescue charity.