International law is a lovely concept, but there don’t seem to be consequences for breaking it

Following the news doesn’t fill me with confidence that sanctions or laws stop countries doing whatever they want.

International law is one of things that people talk about, but I’m not entirely sure it exists.

I’ve heard of it, it seems to come up a lot, especially lately, but only in the context of possible breaches, very rarely when it comes to consequences.It’s much the same with wider international bodies like NATO or the UN, who I know do good work, but still feel fairly toothless at a time every other headline is about the mass slaughter of civilians.

This week there was some progress from a bloc, specifically the EU in agreeing a massive new package of support for Ukraine to help them fight back against the Russian invaders. The Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, who looks like a Bond villain but behaves even worse, had tried to stop the package, because he’s a close ally of Vladimir Putin.On one level it’s an endorsement of large multinational organisations that it worked out, but on the other, it doesn’t seem great to allow allies of monsters a veto on whether to help people fight them.

Israel has been urged to avoid more civilian deaths.

It’s even worse at the UN, where China and Russia both sit on the security council, allowing them to prevent any real action being taken.The Chinese state has been involved in crimes against the Uyghurs since 2014. Human rights groups believe more than one million Uyghurs have been detained in "re-education camps", with leaked documents making clear this education involved mass rape, sterilisation and torture. Because of international trade, due to international diplomacy, nations can call this out but have to do so in a measured way. I’m fairly sure this breaches international law, but does that matter if nothing happens?Then there is what is happening in Gaza, where the Israeli Government is carrying out precise targeted attacks against Hamas, albeit not precise enough to avoid killing 11,500 children, so far. Hospitals, schools, designated safe zones where charity workers are, none of them are safe from what the untrained eye would probably not consider a proportionate response.

Fear not however, international law is to the rescue yet again, with the UN’s International Court of Justice urging Israel to do it all it can prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide. This isn’t law, that is not protection, it’s a polite tut over the rubble.The issue is, in all these cases, the way to ensure you don’t break international law is to simply insist you haven’t, knowing the Hague and every other court has nothing to threaten you with. How could any despotic murderer be anxious about recriminations when Bashar al-Assad still runs Syria.

I’m not saying the UN, the EU, and NATO are useless, and it is better to try and do the right thing then fail than do nothing. But, looking at the world, it’s hard to feel there’s any accountability, any consequences, or any real way of stopping horrible people doing horrible things.