§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the use or threatened use or possession and deployment of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyMany states have accepted international obligations not to possess nuclear weapons (for example, by becoming non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the non-proliferation treaty). Otherwise there is no general prohibition of the possession of nuclear weapons. Whether the use or the threatened use of nuclear weapons was unlawful in any individual case would depend on the particular circumstances of that case.