[Opinion] Justice Weeramantry & Nuclear Weapons

Justice Weeramantry & Nuclear Weapons

In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons could ever be legal. The Court’s majority opinion in 1996 concluded that nuclear weapons would generally violate international law, but it did not declare an absolute prohibition. It left open the possibility that their use might be lawful in an extreme situation of self‐defence when a …