Use of nuclear weapons in self-defense

Abstract

Abstract: The right of states to defend their entity and existence is one of the most important rights sanctioned by the rules of international law and a set of controls and conditions have been set for it. The Charter of the United Nations 1945 approved this right as an exception to the principle of prohibiting the use of force in international relations. The right of legitimate defense of states within the scope of public international law has been subject to legal debate and controversy after enormous developments occurred in the means and methods of combat, most notably the invention of nuclear weapons and the use or threat of use by the possessing state in its relations with other states. Nuclear use in the case of legitimate defense to respond to the aggressor state without restrictions, or does the exercise of this right must take place within a framework of legality, i.e. the necessity of the controls and conditions of legitimate defense as a condition of necessity and proportionality. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the legality of the use or threat of nuclear weapons of 1996, addressed the issue of the use of nuclear weapons in the case of legitimate defense, as it considered that within the current state of international law and within the framework of the elements of reality that have been prepared for it, it cannot conclude on the I am certain of the extent to which the use of nuclear weapons is compatible or incompatible with international law in an extreme circumstance of self-defense, in which the very survival of the state is at risk. Legitimate defense, and what complicates the matter is the absence of an explicit treaty ban that states the illegality of the use of nuclear weapons. In its advisory opinion, the Court concluded that it could not reach a conclusive conclusion as to the legality or illegality of the use of nuclear weapons by a State under extreme conditions of self-defense where its very existence would be endangered, and in fact if the use of nuclear weapons would routinely violate International humanitarian law, as implied in the Court's opinion, is also a violation in extreme circumstances of self-defense.