Legislative and background history regarding the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Act favors Dann’s construction of the word chemical weapon. Legislative history is the full record the accompanies the statute and can reveal its purpose or legislative intent. After the grievous consequences of using chemicals as weapons in WWI, Iran and Japan, the international treaty was enacted by the US in order to end the use of chemical weapons in warfare. Dann will use a purposivist approach to argue the treaty’s aim was to prevent chemical warfare and terrorism, not to deter local assaults. Dann can use the Committee Report of the Senate Armed Services Committee that implies the statute is concerned with ‘acts of war, assassination and terrorism’ to argue
