Nuclear Weapons versus International Law: A Contextual Reassessment
![handle is hein.journals/mcgil28 and id is 554 raw text is: Nuclear Weapons Versus International Law:
A Contextual Reassessment
Burns H. Weston*
While it is true that the world community has
yet to enact a treaty explicitly outlawing nu-
clear weapons in general, the author argues
that restraints on the conduct of war never
have been limited to treaty law alone. Reject-
ing a purely hegemonic and statist concep-
tion of international law, it is suggested in-
stead that an argument against the legality of
most - and clearly all dominant - uses of
nuclear weapons can be fashioned from im-
plicit treaty provisions, international cus-
toms, general principles, judicial decisions,
United Nations declarations, and even from
initiatives by groups having little formal in-
ternational status. The author employs the
coordinate communication flow theory of
norm prescription to demonstrate that the
laws of war, including their humanitarian
components, do apply to nuclear weapons
and warfare. After identifying the relevant
rules, the author applies them to specific
conflict situations in which nuclear weapons
might be used, concluding that virtually all
potential uses of nuclear weapons are pres-
ently unlawful.
Quoiqu'il soit vrai que ]a communaut6 mon-
diale n'ait pas r6ussi A conclure un traitd
interdisant formellement l'usage d'armes
nucl6aires, l'auteur soutient que les moyens
de r6glementer les conflits arm6s ne sont pas
limit6s au seul domaine du droit des trait6s.
Rejetant une conception purement h6g6mo-
nique et dtatiste du droit international, l'au-
teur propose plut6t qu'il est possible d'arti-
culer une position contre ]a 16galit6 de l'u-
sage d'armes nucl6aires dans la tr~s grande
majorit6 des cas, A partir des dispositions
implicites de trait6s existants, du droit coutu-
mier international, des principes g6n6raux,
des d6cisionsjudiciaires, des d6clarations de
I'ONU, et m~me des initiatives de groupes
sans statut international reconnu. L'auteur
fait appel A la th6orie de la prescription de
normes par flot d'information coordonn6
pour d6montrer que les r~gles de la guerre,
ainsi que leurs composantes humanitaires,
s'appliquent aux armes et aux conflits nu-
cl6aires. Apr~s avoir relev6 les r~gles perti-
nentes, l'auteur les applique A des cas spdci-
fiques de conflits oa des armes nucldaires
pourraient 6tre utilis6es, et en tire la conclu-
sion qu'A peu pros tous les usages possibles
des armes nucl6aires sont ill6gaux.
*Murray Distinguished Professor of the College of Law, The University of Iowa; Member,
Consultative Council, The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and Member of the
Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control [LANAC]. A.B., 1956, Oberlin College; LL.B.,
1961, J.S.D., 1970, Yale Law School. I acknowledge with appreciation the gracious help of
my former research assistant, Mr Mark A. Wilson, a recent graduate of The University of Iowa
College of Law. I alone, of course, assume full responsibility for what is written.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mcgil28&div=27&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Nuclear Weapons versus International Law: A Contextual Reassessment
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