Banning the Bomb

3

Individual Responses to the World Court's Majority Opinion*

This chapter seeks to recapitulate the dilemmas faced by the Court in its treatment of the legality of nuclear weapons threat or use through the lens of the principal responses advanced by the individual judges to the World Court's Majority Opinion to the UNGA request. These responses appear in the form of Declarations, Separate and Dissenting Opinions.¹ The normal strength of the Court is fifteen, however the July Opinion was deprived of one member due to his death prior to its proceedings.² Such a development proved to be of considerable import given that the voting on the controversial self-defense formulation was decided by the President's second casting vote.

The July Opinion ...