We now turn to an assessment of the operation against a second legal regime – the law of naval warfare (LoNW). In our view, there are four key LoNW questions that the Marinera capture raises, and two peripheral issues. The right of visit and search of an apparently neutral merchant vessel is designed to ascertain two things. The boarding team must disembark and allow the neutral merchant vessel to continue its voyage. Other material LoNW issuesThere are two other interesting LoNW issues the Marinera capture raises.