LAWYER ARGUES USE OF A-BOMB IS BREACH OF LAW

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 11

LAWYER ARGUES USE OF A-BOMB IS BREACH OF LAW

LONDON, August 9.

„u aw v’? J n ”L 22 countries were told in conference at Edinburgh today that the use of nuclear weapons was contrary to international law. J

Mr W. Harvey Moore, a British barrister and general secretary of the International Law Association, cave these four principal reasons:—

(1) Atom weapons were poisonous—- “ Only barbarians poison their enemies,” (2) They were inhuman, causing unnecessary suffering. (3) They disregarded the historic distinction between combatant and non-combatant. (4) They were contrary to the Geneva Convention of 1925, which prohibited the use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous liquids, materials and devices.

Mr Moore told 400 lawyers at the opening of their week’s conference that if national leaders had any doubts about this they should seek the advice of the International Court of Justice. Its advisory opinion on such legal questions could be sought under the Uriited Nations Charter. Mr Moore insisted that these were his own views, designed to promote discussion and, if possible, to achieve a large degree of eventual agreement. “International law, precisely because of its widespread but vague popular appeal, is too often used bv politicians not to inspire their peoples' to restraint and to co-operative endeavour but as a weapon with which to assail their enemies,” he said.

While sometimes criticising denials of freedom and justice in the East, lawyers would be false to their calling w t 5 e 3 Such denials in the West. ‘There have been some shockin J^ lsg L aceful episodes in Africa, the Middle East, South America, and even nearer home to some of us represented here,” he said. “Crying Need of Our Time” He appealed to the association and to similar bodies with the necessary active support of governments to create a really dynamic-international law since in both the private and pubtime ” 18 cr y ing need of our

He proposed an International Ministry Justice as a, chief organ of the United Nations and an enlarged and permanent International Law Commission, in addition to the existing Supreme Internationa! Court of Justice.

Mr Moore said that President Eisenhower, in his great speech comparing the relative costs of bombs and bombers with hospitals and schools, had failed to compare them also with the weapons of justice. “Give us the yearly cost of one fully supplied aerodrome, naval establishment, or army corps and we will give you a great College of International

Law and a hierarchy of courts, judges, and magistrates to supervirt elections to seek compromise and make decisions wherever national interests are in dispute,” he said. The Communist countries are not officially represented at the conference, whose six-day agenda includes international law and trade, the United Nations Charter, and inland water rights. B ,Th°sc attending include Sir Arnold McNair President of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Organisations represented Include the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for European Cooperation. Professor Max Gutzwiler (Switzerland», the retiring president, said that the association, which had only two branches before World War I, was now trying to /extend its membership to Central America, Spain, Portugal, West Africa, and the Saar. Lord Normand, a former Lord Justice General of Scotland, was elected the new president today. Other topics to be discussed, if time is available later in the week, include air law, international company law, trade marks, nationality and stataleMness, and rights to the seabed and subsoil.