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1 Nobuo Hayashi, On the Ethics of Nuclear Weapons: Framing a Political Consensus on the Unacceptability of Nuclear Weapons 1 (2015)

handle is hein.unl/otethic0001 and id is 1 raw text is: LPI UNIDIR Introduction Today's international law regime leaves little room for lawful use of nuclear weapons.' At the same time, there is no prohibition of these weap- ons per se.2 This situation distinguishes them from biological and chemical weapons, which are subject to comprehensive bans under the 1972 Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, re- spectively. The 'legal gap' became a major focus in discus- sions at the third 'Conference on the Humanitar- ian Impact of Nuclear Weapons', held in Vienna from 8 to 9 December 2014. Both Austria's sum- mary, and subsequent national pledge4 noted this gap, as well as the desirability of filling it with a prohibition. Importantly, Austria also recog- nized the existence of profound moral and ethical questions concerning nuclear weapons that go beyond questions of law. As with other contro- versial areas of life in general, law's ambivalence Mr Nobuo Hayashi is a senior legal advisor at the International Law and Policy Institute, and a researcher at PluriCourts, a Centre of Excellence project at the University of Oslo Law Faculty. I