ABSTRACT
Illegal trafficking in nuclear materials and technology has been going on for a long time and has been the primary source of the clandestine nuclear weapon programmes of states like Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea. The illegality has essentially been in relation to existing national laws of states. These laws have evolved over a period of time, generally to regulate the export of materials and technology leading to nuclear proliferation. Some states have also adopted ad hoc arrangements by forming cartels like the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The Treaty for the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) provides the legal framework for applying rules governing the flow of nuclear materials to non-nuclear weapon states who are party to the treaty. Transfers of materials and even weapons have been taking place under the provisions of the NPT to states party to the NPT who are acknowledged weapon states (like the United Kingdom) and non-weapon states (such as Germany and South Korea until recently). But the issue has assumed new and critical dimensions in recent years. At one level, the advanced status and extent of the nuclear weapon programmes of Pakistan and Iraq highlighted the scope and implications of illegal transfers. The focus has certainly been more intense on Iraq, since it had obligations to remain a non-nuclear weapon state under the NPT to which it was a signatory (not to mention its invasion and occupation of Kuwait). The primary source of Iraq’s nuclear materials and technology was the advanced industrialized states party to the NPT.
