It could easily be argued that the most important topic in international law is the law of remedies. The subject includes both the sanctions that are imposed following a breach of international substantive norms, and the system of institutions designed to investigate violations and then impose those sanctions. The fact that norms governing international conduct lack a secure centralized enforcement mechanism leaves the international system vulnerable to the accusation that international law is not really law at all. For this reason, scholars of the subject have addressed with great seriousness the question of whether an adequate system of sanctions, formal or informal, exists
