Disarmament Law

Disarmament is integral to the safeguarding and promotion of security, development, and human rights. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on disarmament operations, yet no comprehensive guide exists to explain clearly the international rules governing disarmament. This book seeks to fill that gap. It describes the international legal rules that govern disarmament and the operational, political, and technical considerations that govern their implementation. This book aims to support compliance, implementation, and further development of international disarmament law. Traditionally, disarmament focused on weapons of mass destruction. This remains a critically important area of work. In recent decades, the scope of disarmament has broadened to encompass also conventional weapons, including through the adoption of rules and regulations to govern arms transfers and measures to eliminate specific munitions from stockpiles and to destroy explosive remnants of war. There have also been four "generations" of programmes to address small arms and light weapons at national or sub-national level through disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes during and following the end of armed conflict. While an internationally accepted definition of disarmament does not yet exist, it is widely agreed that disarmament encompasses or interrelates with prohibitions and restrictions on the development, production, stockpiling, testing, and transfer of weapons and on their destruction. In addition to clarifying these elements, chapters of this guide will also consider the relationship between disarmament and the law of armed conflict, and with the United Nations Security Council, human security, public health, and non-state actors.

This book seeks to revive the field of disarmament law, building on earlier, important and still relevant, contributions by international lawyers to the subject. It will be essential for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of disarmament.

This volume seeks to start a revival of the field of disarmament law scholarship. Law is a fundamental component of disarmament, yet today, most perspectives on the wide range of disarmament issues that exist come primarily from political, diplomatic and public advocacy angles. The aim of this book is to revive the field of disarmament law building on earlier, important and still relevant contributions by international lawyers to the subject. The collection brings together international scholars on various aspects of disarmament. The contributions range across a variety of weapons types, adopt different approaches - doctrinal, historical and critical - to the issues being discussed and taken together, constitute a snapshot of the ideas, concerns and issues that currently occupy disarmament law scholars. The book will be essential reading for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of disarmament.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine has in many respects set back post-Cold War improved relations between Russia, the United States, and Europe. The continued war in Syria threatens the security and stability of many countries in the Middle East and attacks by ISIS and other terrorist organizations are causing increased fear and instability in Iraq and in neighbouring countries. In many areas negotiations on disarmament and arms control are at a standstill. In Disarmament under International Law, John Kierulf examines and discusses how disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction are regulated in existing treaties and conventions. From his perspective as a former disarmament negotiator, Kierulf explains the United Nations’ disarmament machinery and procedures, and describes the UN’s essential role in promoting disarmament. Underlining the continued and serious threat posed by nuclear weapons, Kierulf appeals for increased and effective international efforts to reduce their number and ultimately eliminate them. Presenting information and analysis on a comprehensive range of issues, Disarmament under International Law is an essential guide for anyone interested in gaining knowledge about the current state of international security.

Arms control and disarmament are key elements in promoting international peace and security. In recent decades the scope of disarmament law has broadened from a traditional focus on weapons of mass destruction to encompass conventional weapons. In this new volume in the Elements series, Stuart Casey-Maslen provides a concise and objective appraisal of international arms control and disarmament law. In seven concise chapters, he traces the history of arms control and disarmament in the modern era, addressing the issues surrounding biological and chemical weapons, the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and conventional weapon and arms transfer regimes. He concludes by considering how, in order to remain relevant, disarmament and arms control will need to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies that defy traditional means of verification and control. Arms Control and Disarmament Law is an accessible, go-to source for practicing international lawyers, judges and arbitrators, government and military officers, scholars, teachers, and students.

This book offers a comprehensive argument for why pre-existing international law on cluster munitions was inadequate to deal with the full scope of humanitarian consequences associated with their use. The book undertakes an interdisciplinary legal analysis of restraints and prohibitions on the use of cluster munitions under international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law, as well as in relation to the recently adopted Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The book goes on to offer an in-depth substantive and procedural analysis of the negotiations which led to the 2008 CCM, in part based on the author’s experiences as an adviser to Cluster Munitions Coalition-Austria. Cluster Munitions and International Law is essential reading for practitioners and scholars of International Law, including International Humanitarian, Human Rights, International Criminal or Disarmament Law and anyone interested in legal and humanitarian perspectives on cluster munitions legislation and policy. It is unique in bringing a practitioner’s perspective to a scholarly work.

This sixth volume of the book series on Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law focuses on current legal challenges regarding nuclear disarmament and security. The Series on Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law provides scholarly research articles with critical commentaries on relevant treaty law, best practice and legal developments, thus offering an academic analysis and information on practical legal and diplomatic developments both globally and regionally. It sets a basis for further constructive discourse at both national and international levels. Jonathan L. Black-Branch is Chair of the ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law and President and CEO of ISLAND - The Foundation for International Society of Law and Nuclear Disarmament. Dieter Fleck is Former Director International Agreements & Policy, Federal Ministry of Defence, Germany; Member of the Advisory Board of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL); Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation & Contemporary International Law.

When German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman first split the uranium atom in 1938, they might have little imagined the potential power their experiments had unleashed. Since the United States successfully detonated the first atomic weapons in 1945, the entire world has lived in fear of annihilation. Technological advances in weaponry and, importantly, their delivery systems have only heightened the sense of dread. Yet, since the end of World War II, world governments have been unable to agree on a strategy for nuclear disarmament. This led first to the Cold War and ultimately to the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world. This work examines the nuclear question within the framework of international law. The advent of the nuclear age and its impact on postwar peace and law is first covered. This is followed by analyses of the initial United Nations disarmament initiatives and the reasons they were doomed from the start. The globalization of the Cold War, the expansion of the nuclear arms race, and the START treaties and the legacy of 1970s-era detente efforts in the years leading up to the end of the Cold War are then detailed. How the United Nations reacted to the end of the Cold War and the prospects for disarmament in the 21st century are the subjects of the concluding section.