ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes several law-of-war problems that arose during the hostilities, and illustrates the degree to which both belligerents succeeded in observing legal norms of combat without any significant military disadvantage. The Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands began on 2 April 1982. Since the 1856 Declaration of Paris it has been a settled rule of maritime warfare that a blockade, in order to be binding, must be effective; that is, the blockading belligerent must be able to enforce its announced blockade. The British declaration was not really a blockade, as merchant ships and neutral vessels were not barred from the exclusion zone. In 1900 the United States Supreme Court held that by customary international law fishing vessels were exempt from seizure by enemy naval forces in time of war. Diplomatic relations between Argentina and Great Britain were broken off on 2 April 1982, immediately after the news of the Argentine landings on the Falklands reached London.
