States and some organisations have expressed their views about the utility, purpose, scope and process of the legal review of weapons in various different contexts. Some of these views have been recorded domestic documents, such as military manuals on the law of armed conflict. Increasingly, however, States and organisations have articulated their positions in a range of international fora, either through written submissions or oral interventions.
This database compiles and organises publicly expressed views in relation to legal reviews, without prejudice to their relative significance or effect (for example, in terms of the development of customary international law). The database aims to comprehensively reflect the views of states but only covers the positions of a small number of selected organisations.
This database currently contains 379 positions and is continuously updated. Any corrections, or suggestions to add material, are welcome.
2015
Statement by the United Kingdom
From our perspective, to discuss LAWS is to discuss means and methods of warfare. As such, international humanitarian law provides the appropriate paradigm for discussion. To that end, we look forward to sharing our views on the process of Legal Weapons Review. That is a …
Statement by the United Kingdom
3. The UK takes its obligations under IHL extremely seriously. As required by Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Convention, the UK conducts legal reviews of weapons in accordance with Article 36 of the Protocol. The UK is aware that despite the large numbers of …