Dean for Medway and Kent Law School professor, Nick Grief, is a member of a legal team nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its work at the International Court of Justice.
The international team of lawyers is representing the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in nuclear disarmament cases against India, Pakistan and the UK. The RMI alleges that each State is failing to comply with its obligation under international law to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
Professor Grief practises at the Bar from Doughty Street Chambers and is due to appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague next week. He said: ‘The RMI lodged applications against all nine nuclear-armed States in April 2014, but only India, Pakistan and the UK accept the Court’s jurisdiction, which in contentious proceedings is based on consent. Next week’s hearings are solely to establish whether the Court does have jurisdiction in these cases and whether they are admissible – the merits of the cases will be addressed at a future date if the RMI succeeds at this preliminary stage.’
Professor Grief was brought on to the RMI’s legal team by Keller Rohrback LLP, a US law firm acting for the RMI in parallel proceedings filed in the Federal District Court in San Francisco. Previously, he was closely involved in the World Court Project, a world-wide campaign that resulted in an historic advisory opinion by the ICJ in July 1996; the ICJ ruled that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal, and that States have an obligation to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations for their elimination. Professor Grief also gave evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee on the legal implications of the 2006 White Paper on the future of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
The RMI’s legal team, led by the RMI’s former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, has been nominated for the Peace Prize by Secretary-General of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) Colin Archer. In a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, he praises the team’s ‘highly effective’ work and says: ‘The IPB sincerely believes that the Marshall Islands initiative will prove to be a significant and decisive step in ending the nuclear arms race and in achieving a world without nuclear weapons.’
The full text of the nomination letter is available to read online.
Professor Grief teaches Public International Law and EU Law at Kent Law School. His research interests also include air and space law and the domestic implications of international law. He has further interests in human rights, especially the right to protest, conscientious objection to the payment of taxes for military purposes and the use of international law by protesters in UK courts. In September 2015, a report prepared by Professor Grief was relied on by two anti-nuclear protesters acquitted of aggravated trespass at HM Naval Base, Devonport.