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War Crimes and Just War

Author: Larry May, Washington University, St Louis

Date Published: February 2007
availability: Available
format: Hardback
isbn: 9780521871143

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About the Authors

Larry May argues that the best way to understand war crimes is as crimes against humanness rather than as violations of justice. He shows that in a deeply pluralistic world, we need to understand the rules of war as the collective responsibility of states that send their citizens into harm's way, as the embodiment of humanity, and as the chief way for soldiers to retain a sense of honour on the battlefield. Throughout, May demonstrates that the principle of humanness is the cornerstone of international humanitarian law, and is itself the basis of the traditional principles of discrimination, necessity, and proportionality. He draws extensively on the older Just War tradition to assess recent cases from the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia as well as examples of atrocities from the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- Comprehensive treatment of morality of war crimes prosecutions
- Links seventeenth-century just war theory to current international court cases
- Reconceptualises principles of military necessity and proportionality
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Product details
- Date Published: February 2007
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521871143
- length: 358 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 158 x 25 mm
- weight: 0.592kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction:
1. Justifying war but restricting tactics
Part A. Philosophical Groundings:
2. Collective responsibility and honor during war
3. Jus gentium and minimal natural law
4. Humane treatment as the cornerstone of the rules of war
Part B. Problems in Identifying War Crimes:
5. Killing naked soldiers: combatants and noncombatants
6. Shooting poisoned arrows: banned and accepted weapons
7. Torturing prisoners of war: protected and normal soldiers
Part C. Normative Principles:
8. The principle of discrimination or distinction
9. The principle of necessity
10. The principle of proportionality
Part D. Prosecuting War Crimes:
11. Prosecuting soldiers for war crimes
12. Prosecuting military leaders for war crimes
13. Commanded and commanding defenses
Epilogue and Conclusions:
14. Should terrorists be treated humanely?
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Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses
- Peace Seminar
- War, Peace and Revolution
Author
Larry May, Washington University, St Louis
Larry May is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St Louis. He is the author of several books, including The Socially Responsive Self, Masculinity and Morality, and Crimes against Humanity, the first book in a trilogy of volumes on the normative foundations of international criminal law. War Crimes and Just War, the second volume in the trilogy, received the Frank Chapman Sharp Prize from the American Philosophical Association.