Since its founding in 1981, LCNP has advocated for non-use and elimination of nuclear weapons in accordance with international law. Non-use is mandated by the fundamental principles and rules of the law of armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, above all the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks, as well as by human rights law.
Elimination is mandated by the obligation rooted in Article VI of the Nonproliferation Treaty and other international law to achieve disarmament through good-faith negotiation. That obligation was declared unanimously by the International Court of Justice in its 1996 Advisory Opinion. LCNP has also advocated for compliance with the UN Charter, for example by calling for restraint and diplomacy in the US-DPRK confrontation in 2017 and by opposing the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq.
LCNP has engaged in analysis, advocacy, and organizing on multiple fronts, notably the World Court Project which led to the ICJ’s opinion, civil society conferences such as one on good faith and another that produced the Vancouver Declaration, submissions to human rights bodies, legal scholarship, and more.
Nuclear Weapons and International Law - The Renewed Imperative in Light of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine (Virtual conference held November 8, 2023)
Upcoming new release - comprehensive treatise on nuclear weapons threat and use (publication date February 15, 2024): Nuclear Weapons and International Law: Existential Risks of Nuclear War and Deterrence through a Legal Lens, by Charles J. Moxley, Jr. Forewords by William J. Perry, John D. Feerick, and Claire Finkelstein.
“I was 20 in 1945” (text and video), LCNP President Emeritus Peter Weiss, United Nations Academic Impact: J. Michael Adams Lecture and Conversation, November 20, 2019
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy Violates the Right to Life, Submission to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review by LCNP, Western States Legal Foundation, and Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, October 3, 2019
Post-1996 Scholarly Interpretations of the Legal Status of Threat of Force, Ariana Smith, December 2018
Striking North Korea First Is a Bad Proposal, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, Letter, Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2018
We can’t attack North Korea. It’s against the law, John Burroughs, Newsweek, November 30, 2017
John Burroughs: International Law and the First Use of Nuclear Weapons, Presidential First Use of Nuclear Weapons: Is it Legal? Is it Constitutional? Is it Just? Harvard University, November 4, 2017 (Conference report with videos of speakers)
Trump's Threat of Total Destruction is Unlawful & Extremely Dangerous, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, IPS, September 25, 2017
Activist group aiming to abolish nuclear weapons wins Nobel Peace Prize, PBS NewsHour interview with John Burroughs, October 6, 2017
IALANA Welcomes the Award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, October 6, 2017
IALANA Statement Regarding the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on the Occasion of its Opening for Signature on 20 September 2017
IALANA Bids Farewell to Judge Weeramantry, January 5, 2017
Law’s Imperative: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons: Forum and Reception Honoring Peter Weiss, LCNP President Emeritus, Downtown Community Television, New York City, April 2, 2014 (Remarks of: Hans Corell, Virginia Gamba, Elizabeth Shafer, Roger Clark, Peter Weiss)
War Is Not the Path to Peace: The United States, Iraq, and the Need for Stronger International Legal Standards to Prevent War, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, October 24, 2002
The United Nations Charter and the Use of Force Against Iraq, John Burroughs, Peter Weiss, Andrew Lichterman, Jacqueline Cabasso, Michael Ratner, Jules Lobel, October 2, 2002
Danger: Triumphalists at Work, essay by LCNP President Peter Weiss, 1999
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
International Court of Justice advisory opinion
LCNP, in conjunction with the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), the International Peace Bureau (IPB), and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) led the World Court Project, a world-wide campaign that resulted in an historic opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 1996. The ICJ found that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal, and that states have an obligation to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations on their elimination.
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
Looking Back: The 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, John Burroughs, Arms Control Today, July/August 2016
The now 20-year-old opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons threat or use remains an indispensable guide to the norms requiring non-use of the weapons and negotiation of their elimination.
Marshall Islands 2014-2016 nuclear disarmament cases in the International Court of Justice based on the Court’s 1996 opinion
The International Court of Justice and the Scottish High Court: Two Views of the Illegality of Nuclear Weapons, Peter Weiss, July 31, 2001
Legal Norms in the Real World, Peter Weiss, March 4, 2000
The (Il)legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons: A Guide to the Historic Opinion of the International Court of Justice, John Burroughs, 1997
Fordham International Law Journal
Nuclear Weapons and Compliance with International Humanitarian Law and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Charles J. Moxley, Jr., John Burroughs and Jonathan Granoff, Fordham International Law Journal (Vol. 34, 2011)
Obama's Nuclear Posture Review, Charles J. Moxley, Jr., Fordham International Law Journal (Vol. 34, 2011)
Taking the Law Seriously: The Imperative Need for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, Peter Weiss, Fordham International Law Journal (Vol. 34, 2011)
Vancouver Declaration
Vancouver Declaration: Law's Imperative for the Urgent Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World, February 11, 2011
Signatories to the Vancouver Declaration, February 2013
Media Release, March 23, 2011
Vancouver Conference
Humanitarian Law, Human Security: The Emerging Paradigm for Non-Use and Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Hosted by The Simons Foundation and co-convened by IALANA, Vancouver, February 10-11, 2011.
Conference Statement of Intent
Remarks of Nicholas Grief - Nuclear Weapons: The Legal Status of Use, Threat and Possession
Speaking Notes of Victor Vavricka, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Remarks of Peter Weiss: How Many Points of the Law is Possession?
Remarks of Randy Rydell: Bringing Democracy and the Rule of Law to Disarmament
Paper by Toshinori Yamada: Japan's View of the Use of Nuclear Weapons
Paper by Elizabeth Shafer: Humanitarian Law and the Nuclear Disarmament Obligation
Good Faith
Good Faith Negotiations Leading to the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: Request for an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice, IALANA, International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, May 2009 [Press release]
Good Faith, International Law, and Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Conference, Geneva, May 1, 2008:
Judge Mohammed Bedjaoui, Keynote Address, May 1, 2008, Geneva
Professor Karima Bennoune, The Intersection of Nuclear Weapons and International Human Rights Law
Good Faith: A Fundamental Principle of International Law, John Burroughs, News in Review, Final Edition, No. 9, 28 April – 9 May 2008
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court and Nuclear Weapons, Roger S. Clark, New York, October 18, 2013. Clark is a professor at Rutgers Law and an LCNP advisor.
US Opposition to the International Criminal Court, John Burroughs, June 2003
The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, John Burroughs, June 15, 1999
The French "Interpretative Declaration" Regarding Nuclear Weapons, John Burroughs, July 5, 2000
IALANA is a member of the civil society Coalition for the International Criminal Court. See also the Court’s official website.