Weighing Lives in War (Ethics, National Security, and the Rule of Law)

This volume combines philosophical analysis with normative legal theory. Although both disciplines have spent the past fifty years investigating the nature of the principles of necessity and proportionality, these discussions were all too often walled off from each other. However, the boundaries of these disciplinary conversations have recently broken down, and this volume continues the cross-disciplinary effort by bringing together philosophers concerned with the real-world military implications of their theories and legal scholars who frequently build doctrinal arguments from first principles, many of which herald from the historical just war tradition or from the contemporary just war literature. What unites the chapters into a singular conversation is their common skepticism regarding whether the traditional doctrines, in both law and philosophy, have correctly valued the lives of civilians and combatants at war. The arguments outlined in this volume reveal a set of principles, including necessity and proportionality, whose core essence remains essentially contested. What does military necessity mean and are soldiers always subject to lethal force? What is proportionality and how should military commanders attach a value to a military target and weigh it against collateral damage? Do these valuations remain the same for both sides of the conflict? From the secure viewpoint of the purely descriptive, lawyers might confidently describe some of these questions as settled. But many others, even from the vantage point of descriptive theory, remain under-analyzed and radically lacking in clarity and certainty. Contents Notes on Contributors Introduction • Jens David Ohlin, Larry May, and Claire Finkelstein PART I. NECESSITY AND THE LIVES OF COMBATANTS 1. The Dispensable Lives of Soldiers • Gabriella Blum 2. Sharp Wars Are Brief • Jens David Ohlin 3. Humanity, Necessity, and the Rights of Soldiers • Larry May 4. The Deaths of Combatants: Superfluous Injury and Unnecessary Suffering in Contemporary Warfare • Michael L Gross PART II . PROPORTIONALITY, CIVILIAN HARM, AND SOLDIERS 5. Proportionate Defense • Jeff McMahan 6. Proportionate Killing: Using Traditional Jus in Bello Conditions to Model the Relationship Between Liability and Lesser-Evil Justifications for Killing in War • Jovana Davidovic 7. Compensation and Proportionality in War • Saba Bazargan-Forward 8. A Theory of Jus in Bello Proportionality • Adil Ahmad Haque 9. Proportionality in Warfare as a Political Norm • Ariel Colonomos PART III. COMBATANCY AND THE VALUE OF LIVES IN ASYMMETRIC CONFLICT 10. The Equality of Combatants in Asymmetric War • Claire Finkelstein 11. Rewriting the AUMF: Bringing Guidance to Executive Decisions on Combatancy and Returning the US to the Path of the War Convention • Jon Todd 12. Weighing Unjust Lives • Andrew T Forcehimes 13. Joint and Combined Targeting: Structure and Process • Michael Schmitt, Jeffrey Biller, Sean C Fahey, David S Goddard, and Chad Highfill Index Présentation de l'éditeur : "The chief means to limit and calculate the costs of war are the philosophical and legal concepts of proportionality and necessity. Both categories are meant to restrain the most horrific potential of war. The volume explores the moral and legal issues in the modern law of war in three major categories. In so doing, the contributions will look for new and innovative approaches to understanding the process of weighing lives implicit in all theories of jus in bello: who counts in war, understanding proportionality, and weighing lives in asymmetric conflicts. These questions arise on multiple levels and require interdisciplinary consideration of both philosophical and legal themes." "The chief means to limit and calculate the costs of war are the philosophical and legal concepts of proportionality and necessity. Both categories are meant to restrain the most horrific potential of war. The volume explores the moral and legal issues in the modern law of war in three major categories. In so doing, the contributions will look for new and innovative approaches to understanding the process of weighing lives implicit in all theories of jus in bello: who counts in war, understanding proportionality, and weighing lives in asymmetric conflicts. These questions arise on multiple levels and require interdisciplinary consideration of both philosophical and legal themes." -- Publisher's web site 'weighing Lives In War' Examines The Core Principles Of The Modern Law Of War: Necessity, Proportionality, And Distinction, And Provides New And Innovative Insights Into The Process Of Weighing Lives Implicit In All Theories Of Jus In Bello. Jens David Ohlin, Larry May, And Claire Finkelstein. This Edition Previously Issued In Print: 2017. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.