Seminar Offered by Los Alamos Study Group on Nuclear Weapons Law, Policy & Public Intervention

Albuquerque, NM - On July 29-31, the Los Alamos Study Group will provide an authoritative short course on the legal status of nuclear weapons and the history of U.S. nuclear weapons policy, as well as a review of the civil society response over the past 60 years. 

The course will be held in Room 2405 at the UNM Law School.  It begins Friday evening at 7:00 PM with a précis of the course from all four lecturers.  The course resumes Saturday morning at 8:00 AM with a 4-hour review of international legal status of nuclear weapons.  The Saturday afternoon session, beginning at 1:30 PM, is to be devoted to nuclear weapons technology and effects and to the historical development of U.S. nuclear weapons policy. 

At 4:30 pm Saturday, Dr. Lawrence Wittner will speak on “How Peace Activists Saved the World,” a lecture open to the general public at no charge. 

On Saturday night, the history of resistance by civil society will again be the theme. 

On Sunday at 9:00 AM, the last session of the course will begin with a review of current issues in nuclear weapons policy and will conclude with a discussion of the contradictions and challenges inherent in nuclear weapons policy and law overall.

This information-intense seminar is aimed a broad audience, including citizens interested in active participation in nuclear policy decisions; journalists looking for background often missing in the daily news context; attorneys interested in international law or in nuclear issues; and weapons complex personnel looking for an outside perspective. 

Study Group Director Mello: “The very strong legal norms against nuclear weapons have been enacted, often against strong state opposition, because of humanity’s moral convictions against mass slaughter and needless suffering.  These norms deserve our careful attention.  In the long run if not the short, nuclear weapons must give way to law, or law itself will fall to nuclear weapons.” 

Lecturers include: Dr. John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, a specialist on treaty regimes and international law relating to nuclear and other non-conventional weapons; Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation, a leading voice for nuclear weapons abolition in the U.S. and worldwide; Greg Mello, Executive Director of the Study Group, an expert on U.S. nuclear weapons policy and the U.S. nuclear weapons complex; and Dr. Lawrence Wittner, a SUNY Albany professor and former president of the Council on Peace Research in History (now the Peace History Society), author of the acclaimed three volume history, The Struggle Against the Bomb. 

The course is accredited for 8.4 general units of continuing legal education (CLE) credit.  Full tuition is $50 for non-attorneys and $150 for attorneys seeking CLE credit.  For those who cannot attend the entire weekend, single “blocks” of time (Friday evening; Saturday morning, afternoon, and evening; and Sunday morning) cost $10, except for the 4:30 pm lecture by Dr. Wittner, which is free.

Pre-registration is required; contact Claire Long at clong@lasg.org or 505-265-1200.

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