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The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence
The lawful use of nuclear weapons in self-defence sits in a precarious and fraught position amongst lawyers, states and scholars, primarily due to their indiscriminate destructive nature. The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to peace and security yet they exist under obscurity in Interna...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Public Law
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613666041397248 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Laing, Jessica |
| author2 | Powell, Cathleen |
| author_browse | Laing, Jessica Powell, Cathleen |
| author_facet | Powell, Cathleen Laing, Jessica |
| author_sort | Laing, Jessica |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The lawful use of nuclear weapons in self-defence sits in a precarious and fraught position amongst lawyers, states and scholars, primarily due to their indiscriminate destructive nature. The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to peace and security yet they exist under obscurity in International Law. The purpose of this paper is to examine at what point, and under what circumstances, a State is lawfully permitted to use nuclear weapons in self-defence. The right to self-defence is a basic normative right codified in the United Nations Charter (UN Charter). The inherent right to self-defence is the primary justification for the use of nuclear weapons according to the International Court of Justice in the Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (Advisory Opinion). Even so, nuclear weapons would still have to meet the threshold of self-defence and the cardinal principals of ‘imminence’, ‘necessity’ and ‘proportionality’ which regulate the lawfulness of a state’s actions in self-defence. Since there has only been two situations where nuclear weapons have been used- in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945- it is necessary to examine three hypothetical situations in which nuclear weapons are used in self-defence to determine if, under any, exceptional circumstances such action could be lawful. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31606 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:46.273Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Department of Public Law |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31606 The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence Laing, Jessica Powell, Cathleen international law nuclear weapons The lawful use of nuclear weapons in self-defence sits in a precarious and fraught position amongst lawyers, states and scholars, primarily due to their indiscriminate destructive nature. The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to peace and security yet they exist under obscurity in International Law. The purpose of this paper is to examine at what point, and under what circumstances, a State is lawfully permitted to use nuclear weapons in self-defence. The right to self-defence is a basic normative right codified in the United Nations Charter (UN Charter). The inherent right to self-defence is the primary justification for the use of nuclear weapons according to the International Court of Justice in the Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (Advisory Opinion). Even so, nuclear weapons would still have to meet the threshold of self-defence and the cardinal principals of ‘imminence’, ‘necessity’ and ‘proportionality’ which regulate the lawfulness of a state’s actions in self-defence. Since there has only been two situations where nuclear weapons have been used- in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945- it is necessary to examine three hypothetical situations in which nuclear weapons are used in self-defence to determine if, under any, exceptional circumstances such action could be lawful. 2020-03-17T12:10:05Z 2020-03-17T12:10:05Z 2019 2020-03-16T14:47:57Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31606 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law |
| spellingShingle | international law nuclear weapons Laing, Jessica The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| title_full | The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| title_fullStr | The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| title_full_unstemmed | The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| title_short | The use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self-defence |
| title_sort | use of nuclear weapons under the doctrine of self defence |
| topic | international law nuclear weapons |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31606 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laingjessica theuseofnuclearweaponsunderthedoctrineofselfdefence AT laingjessica useofnuclearweaponsunderthedoctrineofselfdefence |