Welcome to LCNP
Founded in 1981, the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy is a non-profit educational association of lawyers and legal scholars that engages in research and advocacy in support of the global elimination of nuclear weapons and a more just and peaceful world through respect for domestic and international law. LCNP serves as the UN office of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
Peter Weiss (center) and John Burroughs (right) at the 1995 ICJ Hearings. Phon van den Biesen of IALANA is on the left.
Essential Readings
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, ICJ opinion, 1996
Model Nuclear Weapons Convention, 1997 (updated 2007)
Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions, LCNP, January 2021
UPCOMING EVENTS & CONFERENCES (2025)
Virtual conference
Nuclear Weapons and International Law 2025: Nuclear Risks through a Legal Lens
When: January 30th, 2025
Time: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm (ET)
Where: via Zoom
( Register )
This is the third in a series of conferences on international law and nuclear weapons sponsored by the New York State Bar Association and co-sponsored by Fordham Law School, Center on National Security; U.S. Air Force Academy, Law, Technology and Warfare Research Cell; Georgetown Law School, Journal of International Law; University of Pennsylvania, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law; American Bar Association, International Law Section; Catholic Peacebuilding Network; Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy; and Global Security Institute.
Agenda can be found here
PREVIOUS CONFERENCES
The first of the virtual conferences on this series was on November 12th, 2020 titled Nuclear Weapons and International Law. More information can be found here . The second conference was on November 8th, 2023 “Nuclear Weapons and International Law - The Renewed Imperative in Light of the Ukraine War” More information can be found here.
Video Recording with panel segments
Transcript with panel segments
Dr. John Burroughs, LCNP Senior Analyst, presenting arguments before the International Court of Justice in 2016
“IN NEWS”
Historic Settlement Reached in NEPA Lawsuit Over Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production: This lawsuit was first filed in June 2021 by co-plaintiffs Savannah River Site Watch of Columbia, SC; Nuclear Watch New Mexico of Santa Fe, NM; Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), based in Livermore, CA; and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition of coastal Georgia. Nonprofit public interest groups have reached an historic settlement agreement with the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). This is the successful result of a lawsuit against NNSA over its failure to complete a programmatic environmental impact statement on the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This agreement and a joint motion to dismiss have been submitted.
Press release can be found here.
Settlement Agreement can be found here.
“Anyone who has a nuclear weapon as an instrument of foreign policy is ready to break all three categories of law: those of man, god, and nature. The formation of a committee such as yours was a categorical imperative.”
KURT VONNEGUT
From a letter to LCNP President Peter Weiss, September 1997
