About 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.

What we do:-

• Provide legal and policy analysis to national and international policymakers, civil society, and media

• Publish books and papers

• Advocate in UN and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty settings, and in Washington, DC

• Work in disarmament and peace networks and campaigns

• Provide legal assistance to individuals and organizations working for disarmament and peace.

President
Guy Quinlan

Senior Vice President
Jutta Bertram-Nothnagel

Executive Director
Dr. Deepshikha Vijh

Senior Analyst
Dr. John Burroughs

Research Associate

Kian Jamasbi

Creative Designer

Ashley Wang

Board of Directors Anne M. Corominas
Anabel Dwyer
Richard Falk
Jonathan Granoff
Charles J.Moxley, Jr.
Todd Pierce
James Ranney
Gail Rowan
Elizabeth Shafer
Seth Shelden
Jules Zacher
Peter Weiss, President
Emeritus

Consultative Council
Edward Aguilar
Glenn Alcalay
Carl David Birman
Susan Bitensky
Jacqueline Cabasso
Roger Clark
Brian D'Agostino
Nicole Deller
Asbjorn Eide
Howard Friel
Ann Fagan Ginger
Jules Lobel

Consultative Council
William Quigley
Douglas Roche
Allan Rosas
Randy Rydell
Simeon Sahaydachny
Ron Slye
Michael E. Tigar
Alyn Ware
Bert Lockwood
Stephen Marks
John B. Quigley Elliot Meyrowitz

VICE PRESIDENT

Jutta F. Bertram-Nothnagel

Jutta F. Bertram-Nothnagel, LL.M., is an attorney registered in New York, with US and German law degrees. She is a Former Director of Relations with Intergovernmental Organizations for the Union Internationale des Avocats and served as UIA Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [ICC-ASP]. She currently represents the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms at the UN and at the ICC-ASP. From 2001 until the conclusion of the Kampala Review Conference, she led the CICC Team on the Crime of Aggression. She has attended the negotiating processes for the International Criminal Court since 1995. At the Rome Conference, she has led the CICC Team on General Principles. She has represented non-governmental organizations at the United Nations since 1992, especially in the areas of sustainable development and human rights. She has been Adjunct Associate Professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, 1985-1989, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Studies at New York University, 1991-1992, and President of the United Nations Association of New York, 1997-2000.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dr. Deepshikha (Deeps) Vijh

Deeps serves as the Executive Director of LCNP and in this capacity she also serves as the Director of the UN Office for International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).She is the first woman of South Asian descent to hold this position. She received her DPhil (Ph.D.) in International Relations, and a MSc. in Global Governance & Diplomacy, both degrees from University of Oxford, U.K. She also holds a second masters degree in Political Science. Deep’s thesis at Oxford titled “Evaluating India’s Possession of nuclear weapons: A Study of India’s Legitimation Strategies and the International Responses between 1998-2008” was recognized for its original contribution. Her research interests include the study of legitimacy & norms, arms control, disarmament & engagement of the global south in context of the nuclear regime. As one of the founding members of the Youth Group for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Deeps assisted executive leadership with communications strategy to accelerate membership and outreach activities. Deeps has also served at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) and was a Great Decisions Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association, NY where she worked as an Associate Producer for its Emmy Nominated television series Great Decisions 2020.

SENIOR ANALYST

Dr. John Burroughs

Dr. John Burroughs is Senior Analyst for Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP). From February 1999 to September 2020 he was the Executive Director and has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review proceedings and in negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He was a member of the legal team for the Marshall Islands in its nuclear disarmament cases in the International Court of Justice. His publications include: contributor, Rethinking General and Complete Disarmament in the Twenty-first Century, UN Office for Disarmament Affairs Occasional Papers No. 28, October 2016; co-author, “Nuclear Weapons and Compliance with International Humanitarian Law and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Fordham International Law Journal (2011); co-editor and contributor, Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace (2007); co-editor and contributor, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties (2003); and author, The Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons: A Guide to the Historic Opinion of the International Court of Justice (1998). He has also published articles and op-eds in journals and newspapers including Arms Control Today, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the World Policy Journal, Newsweek, and Newsday. He has taught international law as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School. He has a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Research Intern

Kian Jamasbi

Kian Jamasbi is a Juris Doctorate candidate at Fordham University School of Law, expected to graduate in May 2025. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Michigan. Kian is currently an intern at the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP), where his publication, "Reinforcing Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation: The Case for the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty," was selected as a student paper in 2023.

Creative Intern

Ashley Wang

Ashley is a first year undergraduate expecting to graduate in 2028. Born and raised in Japan, Ashley is passionate about peace and disarmament and deeply understands the devastating impact of the use of nuclear weapons. As a budding graphic designer, Ashley hopes to continue contributing to creative activities so as to disseminate knowledge and bring awareness for nuclear abolition.

PRESIDENT EMERITUS

Peter Weiss

Peter Weiss was President of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy from 1981, when the organization was founded, to 2013, and remains active as President Emeritus and a member of the Board. Mr. Weiss is also President Emeritus  of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and is a former Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a former Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights in Paris. Mr. Weiss is a graduate of Yale Law School and has lectured and written widely on the international law of war and peace, nuclear weapons and human rights. He was the principal author of the draft brief on the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons used by many countries in making written submissions to the International Court of Justice in the 1996 nuclear weapons advisory opinion, and served as counsel to Malaysia at the hearings. His most recent article on law and nuclear weapons is "A Legal Path to a Nuclear Weapons Free World" in the Austrian Review of International and European Law (2010). Mr. Weiss is also a leading human rights lawyer, and with the Center for Constitutional Rights litigated the seminal case establishing the right of victims of torture to sue their torturers in US courts (Filartiga v. Peña-Irala). He retired from the practice of international trademark law in 2006. He is a founder and former President of the American Committee on Africa; former Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington; and Emeritus Advisory Board Member of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. He has also long been an activist for peace and justice in the Middle East and is a member of the Board of Directors of Americans for Peace Now.