Eloquently put.

This discussion can be taken a lot further in the overlanding context, and another good example of laws that seem to be made to be broken and in practice are broken over and over are the international agreements that allow us to enjoy our international nomadic existence.
One such is the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and a summary can be found on wikipedia, which simply put states that unless your vehicle complies with all technical requirements for current registration in the home state and the registration documents are carried, then entry to a foreign country is not permitted under the convention.

So most countries requiring MOTs, TUVs and any of the various safety and pollution tests as a condition of registration and that cancel registrations and license plates if not renewed result in the vehicle not meeting requirements of that Convention.

There was a long discussion a few months ago on this topic on a famous facebook group and it comes up on most forums from time to time and while it was generally agreed that the rules are there and should be obeyed, but because particular home countries made it impossible to meet the conditions of the Convention because they do require tests and insurance before renewing registrations, then everyone was perfectly justified in ignoring it. Also partly reinforced by the plain fact that almost no other countries give two hoots about it either and rarely check currency of registration at the point of entry.
Probably no case studies to look at, or overlanders are extraordinary careful to not have accidents but one wonders what happens in a serious accident and a smart lawyer gets involved. One anonymous legal opinion given on panamericana forum stated that invalid registration back home means obtaining TIP by false swearing/deception and therefore is invalid which means any insurance is also invalid. But he also said that nobody seems to care so maybe the whole situation is best not discussed.

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Tony
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