Mike,
The examples you give are in line but need some correction. Geoff has made some statements trying to make it appear as though whaling in protected whale sanctuaries is legal although it's not. I had a large post earlier in this thread detail a 1/2 dozen or more documents from a variety of sources speaking to the fact that the Japanese where breaking international conservation law with their whaling operations. People can deny this all they want but it's that very princaple that keeps people like Paul Watson from getting prosecuted.
That said let me revise your example:
Say tomorrow it is decided in the U.S. that abortion is federally legal but the states are able to decide independently as to whether they allow abortion state wide. The state of Maine decides that it is a 100% abortion free zone, a sanctuary that is pro-life life. Although doctors are setting up abortion clinics and giving perhaps 1500-5000 (based on the number of whales killed) abortions per year and making a profit from this. The catch to Maine's law is that abortion is legal as long as it's for scientific research.
The doctors (whose clinics are called RESEARCH) claim that the abortions they give are only for scientific research though in reality they are giving the abortions because some teenage girls got knocked up and don't want to deal with the baby. In addition to that abortions "illegal" status in the state makes it possible for the doctors to charge a premium price for their service.
The government of Maine has said that they either need to cease offering the abortions or at least lower the numbers of abortions each year and prove that they are doing research. The doctors do not comply and actually increase the numbers of abortions they are doing publishing fake scientific facts about how abortion is actually helping humanity and a totally valid practice.
Maine says, well abortion is totally illegal in our state but sadly we don't have the means to enforce these laws. The ring of doctors offices doing abortions has become so financially strong and created a World of Abortion union that the federal government won't do anything to stop them and is taking financial bribes from the doctors to ensure compliance.
So here comes along Johnny Watson who is totally 100% against abortion. He decides to start an organization called Abortion Shepard. Abortion Shepard has huge H1 Hummers equipped with enormous brush guards and rams into the abortion clinics destroying the buildings and equipment that can administer an abortion. They also destroy the "abortion mobiles" the doctors travel in to pick patients so that they can no longer get patients to the clinic to make more money.
The doctors are ticked so they want abortion shepard tried in a court of law. Although, Abortion Shepard is only acting on a written legal charter from the Federal Government saying that it is possible for private citizens to act on abortion law by personally enforcing it. (much like the U.N. world charter for nature that sea shepard acts under.) No doctor or patient has been hurt or killed though one of the doctors shot at a member of abortion shepard and hit him, luckily he was wearing a bullet proof vest.
The doctors decide not to prosecute Abortion Shepard since they were illegally supplying abortions and they would risk persecution themselves.
This is basically the way it plays out regarding Sea Shepard only the Federal Government would be the U.N. and the state of Maine would be a place like Australia where the Japanese have illegally whaled. Naturally the doctors supplying the abortions would be the Japanese, Norwegian or Icelandic whaling corporations that illegally whale in other countries whale sanctuaries.