Fairness at a Distance: Systemic Integration and Arms Export Control
- May 13
- 2 min read
This lecture examines the legal framework governing arms export control under international law and domestic public law. It addresses how States should assess the legality of arms transfers where the foreseeable consequences of those transfers are borne by civilians outside the territorial reach of the exporting State. The discussion is framed around the idea of “fairness at a distance” and argues that export licensing is not merely an exercise in foreign policy discretion. It is a legal decision structured by the Arms Trade Treaty, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and public law principles of rationality, fairness, and reasoned decision-making. The lecture focuses in particular on the Arms Trade Treaty, especially Articles 6, 7, 11, and 13, and explains how these provisions should be read together with Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. It examines the legal meaning of “serious violations”, “facilitate”, “overriding risk”, and “diversion”, and argues that these are not political slogans but legal standards requiring structured assessment.
The analysis draws on core rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I Articles 48, 51, and 57, ICCPR Articles 6, 7, and 9, CAT Articles 2 and 16, and Article 16 of the Articles on State Responsibility. It explains why export authorities must do more than recite these norms. They must integrate them into the operative reasoning of the licence decision. The lecture also places the issue within UK public law. It discusses R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex p Doody [1994] 1 AC 531, South Bucks District Council v Porter (No 2) [2004] UKHL 33, especially paragraph 36, and R (Munjaz) v Mersey Care NHS Trust [2005] UKHL 58, especially paragraph 21. It then turns to the leading arms export authorities: Campaign Against Arms Trade v Secretary of State for International Trade [2019] EWCA Civ 1020, especially paragraphs 57 and 134 to 145, and R (Al-Haq) v Secretary of State for Business and Trade [2025] EWHC 1615 (Admin), especially paragraphs 92 to 95 and 184 to 187. This video will be useful to academics, practitioners, postgraduate researchers, policy professionals, government lawyers, judicial clerks, and anyone working in public international law, foreign relations law, export control compliance, international humanitarian law, state responsibility, or judicial review.
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