yes / In the UK at present Taser electrical stun weapons can only be used by trained firearms officers in situations where the use of firearms is also authorised. But the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is asking for these `non-lethal¿ weapons to be made more widely available to other police officers. If this is agreed there will be significant implications for the use of force by police in the UK. In July 2005 the Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears, had stated that the Taser was a dangerous weapon and not appropriate for wider use. The rationale behind the deployment of `non-lethal¿ or `less-lethal¿ weapons, such as the Taser, is to provide police officers with an alternative to lethal force for dangerous and lifethreatening situations they face. Wider availability of such weapons should, it is argued, further limit the need to resort to lethal firearms and thereby reduce incidence of serious injury and death. Over the past few months senior police officers have issued public statements that the Taser weapon should be made available to all officers on the beat. They argue that because police are facing dangerous individuals on an everyday basis, the Taser is required to protect their officers and deal with violent offenders without having to call in a firearms unit in certain situations. A crucial point about this proposal is that it would represent a scaling up in the `visible¿ arming of police officers in the UK. It is claimed by opponents that such an extended use of Taser would actually result in an increase in the level of force used by police in the UK, a concern also echoed by the Independent Police Complaints Committee (IPCC) in the minute of their 27 April 2005 `Casework and Investigations Committee¿ meeting.

Legal regulation of international trade in military material and civilian weapons The thesis focuses on the comparison of regulations governing international trade with weapons of military and non-military character. The area under consideration is, given the character of the commodity traded, a specific area of international trade in which there are a number of legal norms regulating this area. The analysis and comparison of the legal standards in question is based on international, European and national legislation, with an emphasis on internal interconnection of individual legal norms in order to better understanding and relevance to the international arms trade. The thesis consists of several chapters that are thematically related. The first chapter deals with the theoretical definition of international arms trade with a focus on private international law. Particular attention is paid to the international purchase agreement and international transport agreements that will be applied in the course of the implementation of the arms trade. The second chapter focuses on defining the term "weapon" and its definition in the most important international conventions dealing with weapons. Attention is focused on distinguishing military weapons and weapons for civilian purposes. The next, third to fifth chapters...