nuclear-news

THe significance of the Marshall Islands lawsuit against the 5 nuclear weapons nations

 the importance of the lawsuit is based on its ability to highlight the emergence of a new politics of nuclear disarmament, a politics that challenges the very legitimacy and legality of nuclear weapons possession.

The import of the Marshall Islands nuclear lawsuit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Avner CohenLily Vaccaro 8 May 14, The tiny Republic of the Marshall Islands recently filed an extraordinary lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, suing all nine nuclear weapons possessors for failing to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. The legal basis of the case is derived from Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which obligates the five nuclear weapons states under the treaty (the United States, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, France, and the People’s Republic of China) “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.” 

The lawsuit also charges the four nuclear weapons states outside of the NPT—including one, Israel, which has never even acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons—with violating international customary law. But is this lawsuit more than a publicity gimmick? How seriously should it be taken? What does it tells us about current international nonproliferation regime?

It is easy, of course, to dismiss the lawsuit as an exercise in futility, or at best an act of moral inspiration that will have almost no political impact on the real world. In a sense, this assessment is flatly true. After all, only three of the nine nuclear states named by the lawsuit actually abide to the rulings of the International Court of Justice. Furthermore, the court tends to avoid making rulings on matters of national security, let alone on nuclear weapons-related matters (notwithstanding its 1996 advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons). And, of course, all of this court’s rulings lack a means of enforcement.

Nevertheless, this unprecedented lawsuit highlights attitudes, perceptions, and strategies that are related to the politics of nuclear disarmament and are worth noting.  The lawsuit reflects a growing belief among international legal and policy experts (as well as some diplomats) that the time has come for the NPT to be treated—due to its near universal adherence—as part of customary international law by which all states must abide, regardless of whether or not they actually signed the treaty.

Based on this reasoning, the Marshall Islands asks the International Court of Justice to rule that all nine nuclear states are in material breach of their legal obligation to disarm under international law, regardless of their status under the NPT. Currently the international community does not consider the NPT to be part of international customary law; if it were, the treaty would have a legal status similar to that of the international bans on slavery or torture. Should the International Court of Justice make such a ruling, it could elevate the discourse on nuclear disarmament from vague declarations of intentions to stark statements of legally binding commitment.

The lawsuit accentuates the rise of a new kind of politics of nuclear disarmament, a politics that ties nuclear disarmament to humanitarian issues. ………..

the Marshall Islands’ lawsuit should be taken seriously to some extent, but not because of any short-term political impact. Rather, the importance of the lawsuit is based on its ability to highlight the emergence of a new politics of nuclear disarmament, a politics that challenges the very legitimacy and legality of nuclear weapons possession. The lawsuit is unlikely to change nuclear disarmament’s legal standing. It could, however, foster international public support for more concrete efforts toward nuclear disarmament. Whether this type of approach will gain significant traction in the public sphere—as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines did in 1997, leading to a global ban on land mines—remains to be seen. But the nuclear community should closely monitor the reactions to this lawsuit, because such a public response is, if not certain, at least now possible. http://thebulletin.org/import-marshall-islands-nuclear-lawsuit7143

May 9, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | OCEANIA, weapons and war