On 26 March 1998 a jury at Reading Crown Court (UK) was unable to reach a verdict in the case of two women from the Greenham Women's Peace Camp, on trial for causing £10,000 of damage to the fence at Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Berkshire, England, on August 5, 1996.

Sarah Hipperson and Elizabeth Walford claimed lawful excuse for their action and invoked in their defense the 8 July 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.   The Court heard evidence from expert witnesses on the nature of Trident, Britain's only nuclear weapons system, and on the radiological effects on the local population of the nuclear warheads fabricated at AWE. The women furnished each member of the jury with a full copy of the ICJ Opinion, and Roger S. Clark, Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers (New Jersey) Law School, took 90 minutes to explain how the relevant paragraphs justified the action taken by the defendants.

This is the first time that a Crown Court has accepted an international law defense involving the ICJ Opinion in a case of action against nuclear weapons.  Furthermore, the Court accepted that international law is incorporated into English Common Law.  Prosecutors will seek a retrial, but the date is not confirmed.

For more information, contact Yellow Gate Women's Peace Camp, Greenham Common, Berkshire RG196HN.

(thanks to GeorgeFarebrother for this report)

back to International Resistance Notes
back to The Nuclear Resister, #112

last updated July 10 1998