The Lawfulness of a Use of Force upon Nuclear Facilities in Self-Defence

Focusing upon the perennial issue of the temporal scope of the right of self-defence in international law, this article examines the lawfulness of a military strike upon nuclear facilities as an invocation of the controversial doctrine of ‘pre-emptive self-defence’ or, alternatively ‘anticipatory self-defence’. It analyses this question with principal reference to customary international law as a supplementary gloss upon Article 51 of the UN Charter through detailed scrutiny of the applicable precedents, particularly the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Osiris use of force in 1981. In arguing that the proposed strike would be an illegal use of force, the article provides a current assessment on the state of the law of self-defence. It concludes that even if Article 51 of the UN Charter allows for either anticipatory or pre-emptive scope, international custom precludes their invocation to justify uses of force against nuclear facilities