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Sossai, Mirko --- "Disarmament and non-proliferation" [2013] ELECD 820; in White, Nigel; Henderson, Christian (eds), "Research Handbook on International Conflict and Security Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 41

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Conflict and Security Law

Editor(s): White, Nigel; Henderson, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849808569

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Disarmament and non-proliferation

Author(s): Sossai, Mirko

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

This chapter is aimed at assessing the law governing disarmament as one of the pillars constituting the overall framework for the maintenance of international peace and security. The objective of disarmament efforts is a negotiated reduction in armaments as a means to avoid the recourse to the use of force in international relations, although exigencies connected with the maintenance of international peace and security require the continued existence of efficient armed forces. It is significant that in the Presidential Statement issued at the end of a thematic debate held on this subject in 2008, the UN Security Council (hereinafter ‘UNSC’) stressed ‘the importance of appropriate levels of military expenditure, in order to achieve undiminished security for all at the lowest appropriate level of armaments’. The modern law on weaponry is characterized by a close relationship between disarmament law and the law of armed conflict (jus in bello). In principle, their regulatory approach is different: whereas disarmament treaties introduce a ban on the development, production and stockpiling of weapons, international humanitarian law disciplines their use. However, recent disarmament treaties do take into account humanitarian concerns: the paradigmatic example is the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and the Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (hereinafter ‘CWC’). Nevertheless it should be borne in mind that disarmament treaties and international humanitarian law on weaponry seek to achieve different objectives: both branches of law are aimed at reducing the destructive potential of war, but while the former serves the purpose of lessening the probability of the outbreak of war, the primary aim of the law of armed conflict is to preserve certain core humanitarian values during hostilities.