| Ever since their first use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons have raised far reaching moral and ethical questions touching on the very survival of mankind. Although the legitimization of Total War scenarios as witnessed in the two World Wars, had led to the erosion of distinctions between combatants and civilians and the possibility of unlimited widespread destruction, this had been paralleled by efforts to evolve voluntary restraints on the conduct of war---the so called Laws of War. Admittedly these norms were often not legally binding, but nevertheless they enjoyed a fairly wide degree of moral authority.; The sheer scale of devastation that nuclear weapons could achieve, the widespread belief that these weapons could not be used in a manner that would comply with the requirements of proportionality, the prohibition on unnecessary suffering, and the need to discriminate adequately between civilians and combatants, as also the tangible threat of "Mutual Assured Destruction" of mankind and civilization, all meant that the advent of the nuclear weapon era, raised far reaching moral and ethical questions. These included questions on whether traditional notions of victory had any validity in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust and whether the Laws of War had any relevance in the nuclear era. It also raised questions on whether traditional restraints on the conduct of war could be applied to nuclear weapons or whether, given their inherent characteristics, nuclear weapons were violative of minimum humanitarian standards and hence were illegal.; This study focuses precisely on this issue as reflected in the request in 1994 by the United Nations to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons.; Studies such as these are important for the advent of nuclear weapon technology has played a crucial role in reconfiguring the modernized, globalised international landscape, overshadowing the global marketplace with the possibility of instant extermination. But often nuclear issues are dealt with in an uni-dimensional, compartmentalized manner, focusing solely on the minutae of disarmament negotiations or strategic theories. In this work, the effort has been to examine the issues raised by nuclear weapons in a holistic manner, addressing both the imperatives of military necessity and the moral and ethical challenges raised by their existence---questions and issues that came together in the request by the UN to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons.; In doing so, this work draws both on primary and secondary sources. |
