Key words:

arms trade, conventional arms, disarmament, arms diversion, arms brokering, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, terrorism

Abstract:

The paper examines the Arms Trade Treaty´s final text with the overall evaluation of its loopholes that might lower the potential of the treaty to contribute to its humanitarian goal, article by article and paragraph by paragraph. Several major provisions of the final treaty text are compared with the previous wordings of the treaty from the protracted, more than a decade lasting negotiation and drafting process.

The introductory section starts with the examination of the disarmament law and arms control leading to overall presentation of the drafting process on the Arms Trade Treaty. The second section deals with the final treaty text and interpretation of its core provisions, starting with the preamble of the treaty including its principles followed by interpretation of the treaty´s normative body with the evaluation of the treaty´s scope, prohibitions and restrictions of conventional arms transfer.

The paper concludes with a brief summary and final remarks stating the author´s overall opinion on the treaty´s destiny.