ABSTRACT
Since at least the end of the 19th century, disarmament has been an enduring feature of the international legal system and its efforts to secure international peace and security. The Hague Peace Conference in 1899, for example, was convened partly in order to slow the arms race of that time.1 The League of Nations, formed in the wake of the First World War, was imbued with the idea that peace would come through disarmament — the ill-fated and widely forgotten World Disarmament Conference 1932–34 is testament to the aspirations at that time.2
