Nuclear Weapons, State Power and Legitimacy in International Law

Abstract

I hope in discussing this question to try to examine, as frankly and fairly as possible, the relationship between legality on the one hand, and political organisation and political struggle on the other, in relation to this most vital of all issues for the survival of the human race, the control and elimination of nuclear weapons. In international relations, as well as in social relations more generally, law provides a framework for regulating and legitimising relations of power. Law is therefore rooted in economic and political power relations and processes of domination. However, this does not mean that law is the same as economic or political relations, nor that it is a mere covering, a set of clothes or a veil, concealing economic and political reality. It does mean that law is not a fixed, precise and immutable set of rules; and that not only its content but also its form are subject to interpretation, adaptation and change as part of and in response to social change.