HL Deb 07 December 1994 vol 559 c84WA
Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked 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 Wallasey

Many 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.