International Law, the International Court of Justice and Nuclear Weapons

by Edited by Laurence Boisson de Chazournes , Philippe Sands

• ISBN13: 9780521652421
• ISBN10: 0521652421
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The legality of nuclear weapons has been strongly questioned in recent years, particularly by the developing countries and non-governmental organisations. Their concern found expression in the requests by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations General Assembly to the International Court of Justice to pronounce on the legality of their use. On 8 July 1996, the Court handed down two Advisory Opinions; these are the first authoritative international judicial opinions since the development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s. This book offers a comprehensive study of the opinions. More than thirty internationally respected experts contribute their analyses of the status of nuclear weapons in international law across all its sectors: use of force, humanitarian law, environment and human rights. The contributions also assess the implications of the opinions for international organisations and the international judicial function. Contributors include lawyers, academics, diplomats and advisors to international bodies.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	xii
Preface	xv
List of abbreviations	xvii
Table of treaties and other international acts	xix
Table of cases	xxii
Introduction	1	(26)
Laurence Boisson de Chazournes
Philippe Sands
PART I ACTORS, INSTITUTIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Who are the addressees of the Opinions?	27	(9)
Quels sont les destinataires des avis?	28	(8)
Jean Salmon
On discretion: reflections on the nature of the consultative function of the International Court of Justice	36	(15)
Georges Abi-Saab
ET and the International Court of Justice: reflections of an extra-terrestrial on the two Advisory Opinions	51	(8)
E. T. a la Cour Internationale de Justice: meditations d'un extra-terrestre sur deux avis consultatifs	52	(7)
Jean-Pierre Queneudec
The jurisdiction and merits phases distinguished	59	(19)
Gavan Griffith
Christopher Staker
Reflections on the principle of speciality revisited and the `politicisation' of the specialized agencies	78	(14)
Quelques reflexions sur le principe de specialite et la `politisation' des institutions specialisees	79	(13)
Pierre Klein
Judicial review of the acts of international organisations	92	(11)
Elihu Lauterpacht
The WHO request	103	(9)
Michael Bothe
The WHO case: implications for specialised agencies	112	(19)
Virginia Leary
PART II SUBSTANTIVE ASPECTS
Lotus and the double structure of international legal argument	131	(22)
Ole Spiermann
Non liquet and the incompleteness of international law	153	(18)
Daniel Bodansky
Treaty and custom	171	(10)
Roger S. Clark
Nuclear weapons and jus cogens: peremptory norms and justice pre-empted?	181	(18)
Jacob Werksman
Ruth Khalastchi
The question of the law of neutrality	199	(10)
La question du droit de la neutralite	200	(9)
Christian Dominice
The status of nuclear weapons in the light of the Court's Opinion of 8 July 1996	209	(19)
Le statut des armes nucleaires a la lumiere de l'Avis de la CIJ du 8 juillet 1996	210	(18)
Eric David
International humanitarian law, or the exploration by the Court of a terra somewhat incognita to it	228	(19)
Le droit international humanitaire, ou de I'exploration par la Cour d'une terra a peu pres incognita pour elle	229	(18)
Luigi Condorelli
Jus ad bellum and jus in bello in the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion	247	(20)
Christopher Greenwood
On the relationship between jus ad bellum and jus in bello in the General Assembly Advisory Opinion	267	(8)
Rein Mullerson
Necessity and proportionality in jus ad bellum and jus in bello	275	(18)
Judith Gardam
The notion of `state survival' in international law	293	(22)
Marcelo G. Kohen
The right to life and genocide: the Court and an international public policy	315	(23)
Vera Gowlland-Debbas
Opening the door to the environment and to future generations	338	(16)
Edith Brown Weiss
The use of nuclear weapons and the protection of the environment: the contribution of the International Court of Justice	354	(21)
Le recours a l'arme nucleaire et la protection de l'environnement: l'apport de la Cour internationale de Justice	355	(20)
Djamchid Momtaz
The Non-Proliferation Treaty and its future	375	(15)
Miguel Marin Bosch
The Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinions: the Declarations and Separate and Dissenting Opinions	390	(45)
Hugh Thirlway
The perspective of Japanese international lawyers	435	(14)
Yasuhiro Shigeta
PART III THE OPINIONS IN THEIR BROADER CONTEXT
Between the individual and the state: international law at a crossroads?	449	(13)
Pierre-Marie Dupuy
The Nuclear Weapons case	462	(11)
David Kennedy
The political consequences of the General Assembly Advisory Opinion	473	(15)
W. Michael Reisman
The silence of law/the voice of justice	488	(23)
Martti Koskenniemi
Fairness and the General Assembly Advisory Opinion	511	(70)
Thomas M. Franck
ANNEXES
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (request by the United Nations General Assembly), ICJ Advisory Opinion, 8 July 1996 (excluding Individual Declarations, Separate and Dissenting Opinions)	520	(41)
Legality of the Use by a State of Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict (Request of the World Health Organization), ICJ Advisory Opinion, 8 July 1996 (excluding Individual Declarations, Separate and Dissenting Opinions)	561	(20)
Select bibliography	581	(2)
Index	583