Chemical security

Chemical Weapons Use Returns to Syria

In the absence of a specific chemical weapon prohibition, the use of such inherently imprecise weapons could be charged as an indiscriminate attack or as launching an attack with the purpose of inflicting terror among the civilian population. Likewise, the use of such weapons within urban or densely populated areas could also be charged as an intentional attack on civilians, even if the weapons managed to strike proper military objectives. If the harm to civilians is sufficiently acute, an indiscriminate attack could thus be regarded as the equivalent of a direct attack, and even a crime against humanity. Absent an express weapons ban, the use of chemical weapons against armed actors (vice civilians) may not be prosecutable. Regardless of where prosecutions proceed, the use of all these prohibited and problematic weapons in Syria offers an opportunity to generate modern jurisprudence around such munitions.