Laws surrounding the use of weapons in war? (NBC/WMD)

[OsakanOne]

I'm curious what international law is surrounding the use of different armaments within the setting.

NBC and WMD particularly stand out, particularly what the legal take on a shock-weapon is, who owns it and what happens when they are distributed, owned and operated.

 

[Wes]

Yamatai has no laws restricting the use of any weapons in war, and there are no international treaties in the setting regarding laws of war. Yamatai currently has a stockpile of "Tsar Bomba" style aether weapons numbering in the millions, which is enough to wipe out all planetary life in the setting. The primary armory for these weapons is in the Virginia star system.

The Star Army Research Administration (SARA) does research and stockpile biological assets with a focus on countermeasures. The Star Army also has a secret medical task force (TF 75) for dealing with epidemics.

 

[Edto Xar'Sivaree]

Yamatai has the big red button to end the setting. A Sector Wide "Geneva Convention" of sorts would be an interesting thing to impliment. "Hey... No brutalizing your opponents" or "No using unnecessarily painful or slow means of killing your opponents" like how we can't use flamethrowers anymore as it's not clean enough, or we can't attack anyone with a redcross on them if they are treating the wounded.

 

[Navian]

I doubt that Yamatai has all those weapons ready to deploy at the push of a button, or that if they were launched, they'd be as incontestable as ICBMs were on Earth during the Cold War. This setting is supposed to have space combat, after all, I think it takes a bit more effort, and isn't so much about avoiding MAD.

Implementing rules of war would be interesting, but I wouldn't expect them to last long. Yamatai doesn't actually have political authority over everyone in the setting. There is no neutral 'UN' to enforce the rules, and there really can't be when the SAoY is so powerful--they can just break their own rules if they want to.