ABSTRACT
Mine warfare continues to concretize the harsh reality – that remarkably effective military discoveries can mostly be put to use unaffected by humanitarian concerns. The only legal regulations ever adopted were drafted in equivocal terms, to be interpreted at will, and honoured in disrespect. The Germans had placed their hopes in the daily reports of sunk tonnage much as the British had reposed their trust in the unreportable U-boat attrition rate resulting from minefields, mined nets and, later, depth charges. Mines could also be placed lawfully on the high seas but this would concern only warships ‘being chased or engaged in action’ in which case mines should ‘become harmless within half an hour of being thrown overboard’. In the nine decades since the signature of the 1907 Eighth Hague Convention, naval mine technology has evolved by leaps and bounds. Already the Second World War was fought with influence mines, while advanced mines of today feature an astonishing degree of built-in ‘intelligence’.
