Legal aspects of implementing a global chemical weapons convention under domestic laws

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6002660

Tanzman, E A

The notion that domestic law must be considered as part of the planning to implement an arms control treaty shows how far the nations of the world have come in their negotiation of such agreements. Increasingly, arms control agreements are more than simply mutual declarations of self interest. Verification provisions have made them instruments that create enforceable law which, as such, must be integrated into the existing legal structure of each State Party. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the development of international controls over chemical weapons. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 required only a single page to ban the use of chemical weapons in wartime. In contrast, the Draft Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons tabled at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament in 1984 by the United States was some thirty pages long. The most recent Rolling Text of this draft treaty now exceeds one hundred pages and still requires additional text. The vast majority of this material specifies the verification measures and the international agency, to be called the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, that have been deemed necessary to implement the agreement.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6002660
• Report Number(s): CONF-890124-4; ON: DE89013630
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

350100* -- Arms Control-- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation-- (1987-)
350101 -- Arms Control-- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation-- Treaties-- (1987-)
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ARMS CONTROL
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
CHEMICAL WARFARE
INDUSTRY
INSPECTION
LEGAL ASPECTS
MITIGATION
MONITORING
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
VERIFICATION
WARFARE
WEAPONS