International Legal Regulation Protecting Against Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism
Abstract
This article deals with the problem of terrorist misuse of nuclear and
radiological weapons and materials. The author first describes the
circumstances leading to the general increase in terrorist threat after 1999.
She then explores the main forms of nuclear and radiological terrorism,
using accomplished and attempted attacks as examples. The main part of
the article focuses on the question of the current international legal
regulation preventing and repressing nuclear and radiological terrorism
and on the analysis of relevant documents (universal international treaties
and UN Security Council resolutions). After this, it presents an overview of
the International Atomic Energy Agency's activities in this field. Finally, the
author identifies, more generally, the main features of the current
international legal regulation protecting against nuclear and radiological
terrorism, and the trends characterising its evolution.
Keywords
Terrorism, nuclear terrorism, radiological terrorism, nuclear weapons, international law, UN Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency
Author Biography
Veronika Bílková
is the head of the Centre for International Law at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and associate professor in international law at the Law Faculty of Charles University. She is also a member and the vice-president of the European Commission for Democracy through Law of the Council of Europe (the Venice Commission) and the secretary-general of the European Society of International Law. She is a holder of the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation and the Diploma in International Law from the University of Cambridge. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia Law School in New York, Université Paris II - Panthéon Assas, Northumbria University of Newcastle and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. She has authored several books and more than 100 articles in Czech, English and French on international law (mainly the use of force, international humanitarian law, the fight against terrorism, international criminal law, and human rights) and international relations (mainly security topics, the UN and Czech foreign policy).