As DP O'Connell noted in a seminal 1970 article (‘International Law of Contemporary Naval Operations’) and in his equally seminal 1975 book The Influence of Law on Sea Power, maritime operations law is a constantly evolving discipline in both theory and practice—with law often lagging practice by a noticeable margin. One consequence of the (then) ‘Dreadnought era’ focus of much of the law of naval warfare was that ‘[I]f international law appears to the naval officer a tangle of uncertainties in which he is likely to be ensnared, the technology of naval warfare induces in the legal theorists perplexity and dismay’. However, for all of the sometimes haphazard and ‘catch-up’ nature of the relationship between law and practice in maritime operations, there are clearly a number of fundamental, normative, defining themes which have tended to play the dominant role in shaping and informing the evolution of maritime operations law over the last several decades (or, indeed, centuries). Pinpointing which themes come within this category is of course a matter for debate, but it would seem reasonably safe to assert that an indication as to their form and colour is evident in paradigmatic themes such as resource exploitation, maritime claims, technological advance, and freedom of navigation.