Are nuclear weapons legal or not? PSR’s intern strives to find the answers. May 26, 2020

While working with PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program, PSR intern Nicolas-Francois Perron-Giroux (pictured here in Berlin as an exchange student), has explored the legality of nuclear weapons. Since March, Nick has carried out his internship remotely from Quebec.

“Some experts argue that nuclear weapons are already illegal under international law. Meanwhile, the United States—with 1,750 deployed nuclear weapons—and eight other nuclear-armed nations unequivocally consider them legal. Adopted in 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is an initiative to build a comprehensive legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons. As a PSR Spring 2020 intern, one of my main projects was to look at the various debates about different aspects of the legality of nuclear weapons. I have researched and written reports on Nuclear-Weapon-Free zones, the production/possession, testing, disposal, use of nuclear weapons, and also at defense alliances like NATO. These aim to help the reader understand the legal frameworks surrounding these questions on nuclear weapons.”

Read the summary paper