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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.

 

The Inadmissibility of Nuclear Threats, John Burroughs, Arms Control Today, April 2024

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.

 

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 Conference


Good Faith


Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

 

Text of Rome Statute

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.


 

For more on international law, see Publications.