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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.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Necessity and The Lives of Combatants
- 1: Gabriella Blum: The Dispensable Lives of Soldiers
- 2: Jens David Ohlin: Sharp Wars are Brief
- 3: Larry May: Humanity, Necessity, and the Rights of Soldiers
- 4: Michael L. Gross: The Deaths of Combatants
- Part II: Proportionality, Civilian Harm, and Soldiers
- 5: Jeff McMahan: Proportionate Defense
- 6: Jovana Davidovic: Justification and Proportionality in War
- 7: Saba Bazargan-Forward: Compensation and Proportionality in War
- 8: Adil Haque: A Theory of Jus in Bello Proportionality
- 9: Ariel Colonomos: 4 Proportionality in Warfare as a Political Norm
- Part III: Combatancy and The Value of Lives in Asymmetric Conflict
- 10: Claire Finkelstein: The Equality of Lives in War and the Principle of Distinction
- 11: Jon Todd: Guiding Executive Decisions on Combatancy in War
- 12: Andrew Forcehimes: Weighing Unjust Lives
- 13: Michael Schmitt, Jeffrey Biller, Sean C. Fahey, David S. Goddard, and Chad Highfill: 4 Joint and Combined Targeting: Structure and Process
About the author
Larry May is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and Strategic Research Professor of Social Justice at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University, Canberra.
Summary
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.
