Date
December 2016
Document
- View PDF (12 MB)
Description
The official US Department of Defense Law of War Manual was created by the Office of General Counsel at the DOD and originally issued in June 2015. An updated Law of War Manual (as seen here) was reissued in December 2016.
Commentary
Citation
Office of General Counsel, U.S. Department of Defense, “Department of Defense Law of War Manual,” (June 2015, updated December 2016).
Provenance
Topics
Document entry started by Alex Wellerstein on May 12, 2018. Entry last updated by Mikael Kelly on October 13, 2018.
This is an immensely large and complex body of legal discussion. Nuclear weapons are mentioned throughout, largely with respects to questions of proportionality. There is one section specifically dedicated to nuclear weapons:
In short, the law of war is not interpreted by the US Department of Defense as prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons, although it does structure the discussion about possible allowable use.