The Significance of the Human Impact for Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Disarmament

Abstract

Much has been written on nuclear safety from the perspective of compliance and verification. The literature and indeed the debate traditionally focuses more on regulatory issues, effectively failing to address the full human impact regarding nuclear capacity. Likewise, nuclear disarmament, a political aspiration since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and a legal obligation since the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is still the object of much controversy. This chapter aims to raise public awareness of various concerns and deficiencies of nuclear energy production and nuclear disarmament that are addressed and further explained in detail in the ensuing chapters of this volume. In personalizing these effects, the readers are asked to consider their own moral, ethical, and legal obligations to other human beings as they relate to nuclear activity. They are encouraged to reflect on current practice in the area of disarmament, proliferation matters and the harnessing and use of nuclear capacity within the contemporary global context.

Jonathan L. Black-Branch, Dean of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba; Bencher of the Law Society of Manitoba. Ph.D. (Toronto); MA, D.Phil. (Oxford); PLDA (Harvard); JP and Barrister (England and Wales); Barrister and Solicitor (Manitoba); Chair of the ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law.

Dieter Fleck, Dr. iur. (Cologne), Former Director International Agreements and Policy, Federal Ministry of Defence, Germany; Member of the Advisory Board of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL); Rapporteur of the ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law; Honorary President, International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.