Scottish Court Acquits Nuclear Disarmament Activists

On October 21, 1999, after an 18-day trial, a jury in Scotland acquit three women accused of damaging the Faslane Trident Submarine Base in Scotland during a demonstration last summer. The jury was instructed to acquit by the judge, Greenock Sheriff Margaret Gimblett, who based her decision on international law -- specifically, on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of nuclear weapons (see SDA vol. 6 no. 4 / vol. 7 no. 1 double issue, October 1998, page 4). The three women are part of Trident Ploughshares 2000, a campaign that employs non-violent direct action to disarm the British nuclear Trident submarine system. On June 8, 1999, the three women traveled by inflatable boat to "Maytime," a floating laboratory which provides operational support for Trident submarines. Once aboard, they damaged computers and other electronic equipment and tipped overboard logbooks, files and papers. In her decision, the judge stated, "I have to conclude that the three accused ladies ... were justified in thinking that ... the threat or use of Trident could be construed as a threat, has indeed been construed as a threat by other states and as such is an infringement of international customary law." The acquittal has been described as a landmark for the peace movement. Since the decision, the illegality of the Trident nuclear system has been the subject of debate in the Scottish Parliament. In October 1999, the Lord Advocate of Scotland (the principal law officer of Scotland's Crown) took the unusual step of referring Sheriff Gimblett's judgement to the High Court, Scotland's supreme criminal court, for an authoritative ruling on the law. Three High Court judges will consider the case. As of March 1998, the British nuclear stockpile contained approximately 160 Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads. The explosive yield of each warhead is 100 kilotons. Sources: Websites of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, http://ds.dial.pipex.com/cndscot/news/index.htm, and of Trident Ploughshares, http://www.gn.apc.org/tp2000/html/Intro.html, both viewed December 20, 1999; Taking Stock: Worldwide Nuclear Deployments 1998, by William Arkin, Robert Norris, and Joshua Handler (Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C.), March 1998. Also available on this website: Rule of Law or Nuclear Chaos? editorial