Abstract:
A strong narrative permeates international nuclear law to the effect that international law is a progressive force that is slowly but surely propelling the world towards a nuclear free future. This Chapter questions and tests this narrative by examining the extent to which some of the major multilateral nuclear treaties, the ICJ cases that have touched on nuclear issues and Security Council resolutions on nuclear matters have devalued nuclear weapons. It argues that these nuclear laws fall broadly into two categories. The first category includes laws that may in some surface-level way appear to devalue nuclear weapons but in fact fail to ensure that nuclear weapons are devalued in any deep sense and in some respects actually work to reinforce the value of the weapons in particular ways. The second category of laws contains laws that devalue nuclear weapons more deeply. To date, these laws have been acceded to by only certain sectors of the international community. The final substantive part of the Chapter provides some reflections on this way of thinking about international nuclear weapons law and introduces the idea that they reveal this field of international law is a deeply divided area of law prone to an idea I term ‘partialism’.