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Dirk Roland Haupt

Doctoral student

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Altering the Focus from the Ostensible Object and Purpose of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to Collateral Treaty Effects of Strategic Nature : International Law Comments on the Impact of the Treaty’s Prohibitions of Assistance and Development on Technology, Research and Defence-Industry Policies of States in Exposed Geostrategic Locations: The Case of Sweden

Att flytta fokus från det föregivna syftet med fördraget om förbud mot kärnvapen till sekundära effekter av strategisk natur : Folkrättsliga kommentarer om effekterna av fördragets förbud mot bistånd och utveckling på teknologi-, forsknings- och försvarsindustripolitiken i stater i utsatta geostrategiska lägen: Fallet Sverige

Author

  • Dirk Roland Haupt

Editor

  • Jonathan L Black-Branch
  • Dieter Fleck

Summary, in English

This chapter aims to discuss the phenomenon of altering the telos of a treaty by changing the focus of its object and purpose through treaty implementation. To examine the consequences in international law of altering the telos of a treaty, this contribution uses the example of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) against the backdrop of the considerations regarding a possible treaty accession by Sweden as a defence-technologically advanced State located in an intricate geopolitical environment. Altering the telos of a treaty describes the dynamic re-orientation of the goals of a treaty, as explicitly defined in its wording, which becomes discernible when the primary object and purpose of a treaty are objectively unattainable and, for reasons to compensate for this constructive deficit without needing to involve the consented treaty per se, collateral treaty effects gradually override the primary object and purpose. The author argues that for a long period ahead, the TPNW is not expected to effectively guide a process of nuclear disarmament and, consequently, the achievement of its primary object and purpose—i.e. attaining the elimination of nuclear weapons—will remain illusory. Bereft of any perspective ever to reach its ostensible primary object and purpose, the TPNW amounts to a distortion in terms of treaty law inasmuch as this approach, if allowed to prevail, would (i) achieve a discriminatory effect on States party to the Treaty with a highly developed defence and dual-use technology industry and a corresponding research universe, who are closely cooperating with non-nuclear-weapon States pursuing policies of nuclear sharing, nuclear umbrellas or nuclear weapons-related cooperation, (ii) encourage attempts by other nations and civil society to influence the disarmament, non-proliferation, technology, research and defence-industry policies of States which are participating in defence-technology contexts with nuclear-weapon States by prohibiting, with immediate effect and thus before nuclear disarmament is agreed, nuclear weapons-related cooperation left undefined, (iii) inspire unfounded claims that the TPNW reflects, or contributes to the development of, customary international law and thus (iv) actuate fragmentation of the international law of nuclear non-proliferation. As these effects can reasonably be anticipated, States like Sweden act rationally when they attempt to pre-emptively avoid them by not acceding to the Treaty in the first place.

Department/s

  • Department of Law

Publishing year

2021-07-27

Language

English

Pages

411-452

Publication/Series

Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law : Nuclear Disarmament and Security at Risk – Legal Challenges in a Shifting Nuclear World

Volume

6

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

T.M.C. Asser Press

Topic

  • Law

Keywords

  • 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
  • Treaty interpretation
  • Recalibration of the consented telos of a treaty
  • Lundin Inquiry
  • Fragmentation of the international law of nuclear nonproliferation
  • Prohibition of assistance
  • Prohibition of development
  • Complicity in the law of State responsibility
  • Materiel collaborations
  • Aviation equipment system 39 Gripen
  • Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
  • EURATOM Treaty
  • Nuclear-sharing arrangements
  • Nuclear umbrella
  • Krigsrätt
  • Statsrätt
  • Internationell rätt

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-94-6265-462-4
  • ISBN: 978-94-6265-463-1