Nuclear Arms and International Law

Legality vs. Morality?

♦ President of I.P.O. addresses international law conference in Poland ♦

 

Szczecin / Vienna, 25 November 2022
RE/28626c-is

 

In a lecture at the University of Szczecin (Poland), the President of the International Progress Organization, Dr. Hans Köchler, outlined the shortcomings and contradictions in the international community’s  dealing with arms of mass destruction. Although modern humanitarian law regulates the use of armed force on the basis of proportionality and distinction between civilians and combatants,  warfare with the most destructive weapon mankind has ever invented is still surrounded by legal ambiguity. Commenting on the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (1996), Dr. Köchler noted the seeming cluelessness of the Court as to whether or not the use of nuclear arms would be legal in an extreme case of self-defense. According to his analysis, the existing treaties in the field of nuclear arms are faced with four major dilemmas, namely: normative contradictions, unenforceability, confusion between law and morality, and irrelevance. He particularly addressed the problems of the indefinite non-entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) (1996) and of the lack of universal adherence to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) (2021).

In the absence of any enforcement provisions, and in the conspicuous absence (non-ratification) of the states that actually possess nuclear arms or benefit from a “nuclear umbrella” (such as Germany), the TPNW borders on irrelevance, Dr. Köchler explained. A declaration of “nuclear abstinence” by non-nuclear states will not in any way contribute to a nuclear-free world, the proclaimed goal of the TPNW. If nuclear states do not accede to the treaty, its adoption will effectively have been an exercise in Gesinnungsethik (“ethics of conscience”). However, what is needed in the face of this legal vacuum is realpolitik – or preventive diplomacy – on the basis of Verantwortungsethik (“ethics of responsibility“), aimed at avoiding escalation of international conflicts, so that no actor should be driven into a corner where he sees no way out other than resorting to the nuclear option.

 

* Full text of the lecture 

* I.P.O. Statement on the Prohibition of Nuclear Arms (2017)