Nuclear Weapons Law Online Course

This university-level course, taught by some of the world’s foremost experts in the field, will be offered by the University of Sydney, developed by its Centre for International Security Studies (CISS) and its Law School, along with the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.

The legal foundations of international order and peace are at risk in the current geopolitical competition, given the propensity of states to use military force and the trend toward authoritarian and autocratic state leadership. In no domain is this more true than with respect to nuclear weapons and the risk of nuclear war, especially given the increasing allusion to nuclear threat in conflict zones such as Ukraine, Iran, and the Korean peninsula.

This course explains that existing international law constrains states from seeking, preparing to use, or using nuclear weapons in all but the most extreme of circumstances. International law, especially the laws of armed conflict, will be an essential building block of a new post-hegemonic international order in the coming decades. This course provides an accessible overview of how international law shapes and constraints the ability of states to use nuclear weapons, and will equip you to understand and interpret this legal framework in your own work domain.

The online, self-paced course takes students through the diverse elements of applicable law governing the use of nuclear weapons, showing how that law can make sense in the extreme circumstances of nuclear war. After examining ideas of sovereignty and jurisdiction, it considers the law as it applies to the use of nuclear force and to the conduct of nuclear operations during an armed conflict. International crimes, neutrality, and national doctrine will be addressed, and the continued relevance (or otherwise) of a pivotal opinion of the 1996 International Court of Justice will be assessed. It will review the significance of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that would ban nuclear weapons. It will present conclusions for the future of Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) and legal issues associated with its evolution in different nuclear-armed states.

The core reference text for the course is the open access textbook The Law on Nuclear Weapons: An International Commentary (ed. William H. Boothby and Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025).

The course is structured into lectures, each with a distinct topic. In all, it contains about 20 hours of lecture material, supplemented with other resources, including expert interviews and module exercises.

Some understanding of international law as it affects conflict would be an advantage for potential participants, but no prior knowledge is assumed.

The online course will be hosted by the University of Sydney and available at an affordable registration price anywhere with Internet access. Currently, the launch date is anticipated to be in the third quarter of calendar 2026.

For now, inquiries may be sent to nautilus@nautilus.org.

William H. Boothby
retired as Deputy Director of Royal Air Force Legal Services in July 2011. He took a Doctorate at the Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany and has published books on Weapons Law, Targeting Law, the law relating to conflict and on new and emerging technologies. With Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, he published Nuclear Weapons Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021, revised and expanded 2024). His tenth book is The Law on Brain Technologies in Warfare (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026).Air Commodore Boothby has been a member of Groups of Experts addressing Direct Participation in Hostilities, the Law of Air and Missile Warfare, the Law of Cyber Warfare, and Peace Operations Law. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg.

Emily Crawford
is a Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, where she teaches and researches in international law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. She has published widely in the field of international humanitarian law, including three monographs (The Treatment of Combatants and Insurgents under the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press [OUP}, 2010), Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Hostilities (OUP, 2015) and Non-Binding Norms in International Humanitarian Law: Efficacy, Legitimacy and Legality (OUP, 2021) and two textbooks (International Humanitarian Law (with Alison Pert, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press [CUP], 2024) and Public International Law (co-edited with Alison Pert and Ben Saul, CUP, 2023).

Geoffrey S. Corn
is George R. Killam, Jr. Chair of Criminal Law and Director of the Center for Military law and Policy, Texas Tech University School of Law. Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. Service as both an intelligence officer and a military attorney and culminated his career as the Army’s senior law of war advisor.B.A. from Hartwick College, a JD with highest honors from George Washington University, and a Masters of Law as the distinguished graduate from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. Co-author of The Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Perspective; The Laws of War and the War on Terror; National Security Law and Policy: Principles and Policy; U.S. Military Operations: Law, Policy, and Practice; National Security Law and the Constitution, and Law in War: A Concise Overview (with K. Watkin and J. Williamson).

Peter Hayes
is an Honorary Professor at the Center for International Security Studies, Sydney University, Australia and Director of the Nautilus Institute in Berkeley, California. He has written many books and scholarly essays on nuclear weapons and related issues, especially in relation to East Asia. Peter’s recent publications include: “Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons Use In Northeast Asia: Implications For Reducing Nuclear Risk,” “The WMD Landscape In Asia-Pacific,” “Possible Nuclear Use Cases In Northeast Asia: Implications For Reducing Nuclear Risk,” and “Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) In Asia-Pacific.” He co-convened the 2019 conference on nuclear command, control and communications and global stability at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Peter was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2000 for “for combining rigorous multidisciplinary training and technological knowledge with cultural sensitivity, policy acumen, and diplomatic skills…including non-governmental diplomacy of the highest order.” His profile can be found here.

Gareth Evans
is a former Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Australian Labor Party Governments from 1983-96, including as Foreign Minister from 1988-96, where he played central roles in the Cambodian peace process, the creation of APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum, and in bringing to conclusion the Chemical Weapon Convention. After leaving politics he was President of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000-09, and Chancellor of the Australian National University from 2010-19, where he is now Distinguished Honorary Professor. He co-chaired the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001), which initiated the ‘responsibility to protect’ concept, and the Australia-Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2009), and has written or edited singly or jointly fourteen books, including Good International Citizenship: The Case for Decency (2022), Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir (2017), Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play (2015), The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All (2008), and Cooperating for Peace (1993).

Anna Hood
is an associate professor at the Auckland Faculty of Law. She is a public international law academic whose research focuses primarily on international disarmament law, international law and security and the intersection between depth psychology and international law. In addition to her academic teaching and research activities, Anna provides pro bono international legal advice to a range of civil society organisations and governments. In August 2022, she was the civil society participant in the New Zealand delegation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York and from 2018-2022 she was the Vice President of the Australia New Zealand Society of International Law. Prior to joining the Auckland Law School in mid-2015, Anna was on the faculty at Melbourne Law School. Anna has a BA/LLB (hons) from the University of Melbourne, an LLM (International Legal Studies) from NYU and a PhD from the University of Melbourne.