Verification of and Compliance with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Obligations: A Comprehensive Synopsis of Outstanding Issues

Abstract

Nuclear non-proliferation practice is characterized by a wide range of government practice and activities of specialist institutions, seeking to monitor, implement and enforce a legal framework that is often met with non-compliance. Pertinent legal obligations are deriving from various fields of international law, not always regulated in similar forms. This chapter provides a synopsis of relevant work in this area. It reviews current developments regarding the verification of, and compliance with, international standards in the wider field of nuclear security, non-proliferation and disarmament, highlighting the unique nature of this evolving area of international law, addressing the need for specialist legal interpretation, and trying to offer some conclusions which need to be further developed within this rather distinctive domain of international cooperation.

Jonathan L. Black-Branch—Professor of International Law, Royal Holloway University of London; a member of Wolfson College, Oxford; Chairman of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law.

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