One ought to err on the side of legality

Body of rules, treaties, and customary norms governing relations between sovereign states and other international actors. Provides the legal framework for diplomacy, armed conflict, trade, human rights, and the functioning of international institutions — enforced through courts, arbitration, and state compliance.

A U.S. military campaign of lethal strikes against vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics in Latin American and Caribbean waters, which human-rights organisations describe as extrajudicial killings and which the U.S. government has not always supported with publicly released evidence.