LONDON NUCLEAR WARFARE TRIBUNAL
Evidence,
Commentary, and Judgment
7.2.3 Implications for Dissenters, Protesters, Resisters, and Ordinary Citizens
- Symbolic violations of domestic or civil law, if reasonably
calculated to encourage compliance with international legal obligations
pertaining to nuclear weapons, are examples of lawful civil
disobedience, and should accordingly not be treated as punishable by
courts or law enforcement officials;
- Citizens in all stations of life have a right and duty to implement
international law even as against their own government and its
officials, especially when world peace is in issue as a result of
unlawful preparations for general warfare; such reasoning is
strengthened in the setting of possible nuclear war as only
anticipatory and preventive activities are of value;
- In the event that official institutions of law on the national and
international level fail to secure compliance with international law,
then citizens are encouraged to constitute tribunals that operate in a
fair and responsible manner to ascertain disputed matters of law and
fact.
© 1985-2005 Geoffrey Darnton. All rights reserved. gdarnton@nuclearwarfaretribunal.org