In 1386, Chaucer was a customs official in London – a delicate job which meant being seen to enforce the law while not damaging the profits of powerful men who made fortunes from the wool trade.
No less important, governments must be seen to enforce these laws; OECD bureaucrats and fellow members scrutinise each signatory to see how rigorously they investigate and punish foreign corrupt practices.Cynics might find Russian support for a stringent anti-bribery regime akin to an inveterate alcoholic joining a campaign for total abstinence.
A floating journalist who reported these scenes in the March 29th New Orleans Times-Democrat said, "The current running down the Atchafalaya was very swift, the Mississippi showing a predilection in that direction, which needs only to be seen to enforce the opinion of that river's desperate endeavors to find a short way to the Gulf".
One reason is that, like any other arms-control regime, unless it is seen to be enforced it will fall into disrepute.
But even if the final result is necessarily selective justice, the tribunals have managed to call some of the most prominent ethnic cleansers to account.Courting troubleIn July a UN conference in Rome took a further, and possibly bigger, step towards making sure that humanitarian law is seen to be enforced.
Hamas has been seen to make efforts to enforce a cease-fire along the Israel-Gaza border that was brokered by Egypt after a fierce round of cross-border fighting last November.
Congress has seen fit to enforce the accountability of responsible corporate agents dealing with products which may affect the health of consumers by penal sanctions cast in rigorous terms, and the obligation of the courts is to give them effect so long as they do not violate the Constitution.
Last year, putting forward a proposal for longer tenancies, the housing secretary, James Brokenshire, said: "It is deeply unfair when renters are forced to uproot their lives, or find new schools for their children at short notice due to the terms of the rental contract". Yet the government has not seen fit to enforce any changes in legislation to limit landlords' power.
Many in Africa and other parts of the "global South" do—and they see efforts to enforce liberal values as "colonial .Attempting to find a way to square this circle has not been an inspiring task.
Brent Scowcroft, the White House national security adviser, said the resolution - the result of several days of negotiations - allows the United States to act as it sees fit to enforce the embargo ordered by the United Nations against Iraq on Aug. 6, four days after the invasion of Kuwait.
Professor Carolyn Hamilton, of the Coram Children's Legal Centre, said: "Since drastic cuts to legal aid … we have seen children unable to enforce the rights and protections that the law provides to them.
