In the ongoing academic debates on nuclear weapons and their impacts on the global world politics, different writers have established their viewpoints on the presence of nuclear weapons in the international system. The possession of nuclear weapons by major powers and the creation of an international non-proliferation regime are the factors which compelled the leading circles of international intellectual communities to study various aspects of a nuclear arms race in the world. The book under review is an exceptional and comprehensive account of arguments concerning the legal aspects of nuclear weapons while validating the presence of legal frameworks for nuclear weapons in contemporary world politics.
It is a co-authored book consisting of the intellectual contribution of William Boothby and Wolff Heintschel Von Heinegg; both authors are renowned experts in international law. Boothby is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, whereas Von Heinegg is the Chair of Public Law at a German university. The combined work of both authors attempted to provide a detailed analysis of the current state of nuclear weapons law, its evolution, and the rise of multifaceted, complex issues undermining the spirit of nuclear-related legislation. The main framework of the book is divided into twelve short essays explaining different aspects of nuclear weapons-related legislative frameworks of the world. All the chapters attempt to provide a rational and balanced analysis of the legal aspects of nuclear weapons with the help of a descriptive approach. The book starts the debate with a formal introduction and then briefly provides an overview of all chapters, whereas the last chapter of the book ends the debate by highlighting certain important features of the international legislative efforts concerning nuclear weapons. All chapters in the book are organised in alphabetical sections with the objective of identifying the duties of states in managing their nuclear weapons as per the established legislative norms.
The introductory pages of the book explain the purpose of this book which enabled the efforts of both authors to demonstrate the development of the bodies of law that are exclusively dealing with the nuclear weapon. The evolution of nuclear weapons law gradually established the relevance of nuclear weapons-related legislative frameworks with the international system, parallel to witnessing several questions of the non-nuclear weapon states on the validation of these legislations.
The ongoing political patterns of the nuclear weapons states and their ambitions for curtailing the spread of nuclear weapons through promoting the values of international non-proliferation has generally become one of the critical developments of the international system in which the whole international community has been divided into a nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states.
This division has augmented the conventional patterns of strategic differences between states where the non-nuclear weapon states have pointed out several gaps in the laws concerning nuclear weapons. The stated purpose of this co-authored study is to ignore the structural gaps in the existing nuclear weapon laws and focuses on examining the lawfulness of nuclear weapons and their use under specific circumstances. Moreover, the aim of both authors in conducting this study is to analyse the notion of deterrence attached to the presence of nuclear weapons in specific interstate conflicts.
The efforts to achieve this goal led both authors to examine the laws regulating the role of nuclear weapons in the world while believing that various issues originating from nuclear politics have become unquestionable features of the contemporary international system. Thus, this book explored the issues of arms control, disarmament, non-proliferation, and the right to use nuclear weapons for self-defence. The presence of these issues in the world has created a brief layer of literature about the consistently changing politics of nuclear weapons with certain exceptional academic features. In this way, the study of Boothby and Von Heinegg underlines the legal matters related to the legal obligations imposed on the states by customary international law and its principles for managing nuclear weapons.
The spread of nuclear weapons has witnessed the parallel growth of legislative frameworks, which is the undeniable reality of the world, but the spread of emerging warfare technologies generally and missile technologies specifically undermined the status and spirit of nuclear-specific laws (p. 14). These technologies are mainly appreciated and adopted by the existing nuclear weapons states beyond their formal adherence to the global non-proliferation norms under the broader mechanism of the international non-proliferation regime. The evolving nature of warfare has been treated as the potential threat weakening the role of nuclear laws and their promotion around the globe with the belief that the implementation of nuclear-related legislation cannot be spared from certain challenges.
These exciting points have been made in this co-authored study by mainly explaining the interpretation and application of nuclear weapons laws. The imposition of these laws by the international courts and tribunals are the gravitational points of debate in this book because the authors scrutinise the landmark cases handled by the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons. The analysis of the cases on the mentioned platforms of the international legislative community presented an insightful discussion in the book parallel to highlighting various legal interpretations and controversies about the issues related to the possession and use of nuclear weapons. All the arguments prepared by both authors tried to maintain a debate on the legal aspects of the nuclear world and its evolution, starting from the rising appreciation of state governments to the nuclear technology in the post-World War II international system. So, the book traces the examples of key legal instruments like the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Additionally, this book explored the inseparable relationship between nuclear weapons law and various other branches of international law while assessing the role of legal implications of states’ acts of using nuclear weapons in any armed conflict and the humanitarian aspects of using nuclear options in conventional armed conflicts. Based on these characteristics of this book, it can easily be maintained that it is an appropriate study for people interested in exploring various legal dimensions of the contemporary nuclear arms race between states. It could be effective feedback to the people involved in different policymaking circles of the states concerning the legal aspects of nuclear weapons.
