Law and Disorder: February 21, 2022

In this 21 February 2022 episode of Law and Disorder Radio, hosts Michael Steven Smith and Marjorie Cohn interview LCNP Senior Analyst John Burroughs about LCNP’s work and current nuclear weapons issues.

From the Law and Disorder website:

“The United States of America was the first, and has since been the only, country to use nuclear weapons. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the US bombed Hiroshima and days later bombed Nagasaki, exterminating several hundred thousand people. The bomb was used twice to intimidate the Russians even as the United States knew that Japan wanted peace.

“The United States has embarked on a one and a half trillion-dollar project to upgrade its nuclear arsenal.  It has developed the capacity to fire these weapons so that they are delivered across oceans in a matter of minutes with all of the frightening implications. The prestigious Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has a ‘Doomsday Clock.’ The minute hand on the clock has been steadily advancing and is now only 100 seconds to midnight.

“Because of their devastating civilian killing capacity, the use of or threat to use these weapons is unlawful.

“Unlike the Paris climate agreement, which set goals for the reduction of fossil fuels, there are no targets for the express reduction of nuclear weapons. Nor have countries’ efforts to reach such targets been assessed. We have no global process for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

“Guest: Attorney John Burroughs is the former Executive Director, now Senior Analyst, of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. LCNP was founded in 1981 as an association of lawyers and legal scholars who engage in research and advocacy in support of the elimination of nuclear weapons. The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy serves as the United Nations office of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms. John has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review proceedings and in negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons.”

Read more and listen to the episode here.