CCJ President Calls for Nuclear States to Renounce First Use of Weapons

President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Hon. Justice Winston Anderson, has called for nuclear-armed States to commit to a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons in his lecture, ‘No First Use of Nuclear Weapons: The Limits of Law?’

The inaugural lecture, delivered on Tuesday (August 4) in the Aubrey Fraser Lecture Theatre at the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS), is the first of the New Freedom Lecture series hosted by the NMLS in collaboration with the CCJ and support from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

In his address, Justice Anderson urged that the world must act urgently to reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe.

“The people of the world must awaken to the cataclysmic danger facing us in this moment. We must seek solutions, whether these be theological, technical or legal. We must not go quietly into the dark night… a handful of men with access to incredibly powerful nuclear weapons can at any time exterminate the eight billion human beings on the face of the Earth,” he said.

“Nuclear weapons can exterminate not only all of humanity but also all of human history, and as far as we know, all sentient life. Recent armed conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have brought this threat to the fore,” Justice Anderson added.

He highlighted one practical step available to the international community that could serve as a barrier against further escalation and possible global catastrophe.

“We must get our nuclear States to forswear the first use of nuclear weapons. This will not be easy. The People’s Republic of China is the only nuclear power which has expressly declared its commitment to not be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances and not to use or threaten or use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states or nuclear weapons free zones,” Justice Anderson said.

“India has adopted a similar stance, albeit reserving the right to use nuclear weapons in response to a chemical or biological attack. No other nuclear powers have been as clear. Often, they prefer the policy of strategic ambiguity,” he added.

The United States of America, The Russian Federation, The United Kingdom, France, Pakistan and North Korea are the other nations who have declared possession of nuclear weapons.

Justice Anderson said existing legal mechanisms have not been sufficient in preventing the threat or use of nuclear weapons, noting that domestic courts and parliaments cannot regulate the actions of foreign nuclear powers.

“The legal response is handicapped because the domestic law of a State is not global, and global law does not have the direct and compulsory force of domestic law,” he said.

He pointed to the limitations of treaty arrangements in dealing with nuclear weapons due to the voluntary nature of participation in the refusal of major nuclear powers to accept all restrictions.

“Law is but one tool, and in this context, perhaps an insufficient tool, to deal with the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons,” he said.

Justice Anderson also proposed that the United Nations consider recognising a “No First Use Day” to help build public awareness and global advocacy, particularly among young people.

Online registration and participants for the lecture represented 20 countries and territories across the Caribbean and beyond, including Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The event, streamed live on the YouTube channels of the NMLS, CCJ, Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) and the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) is available for viewing online.

The New Freedom Lecture is intended to become an annual public forum in which distinguished regional and international voices will examine evolving relationships between law, governance, and contemporary public affairs, in the context of ‘freedom’ for all.