What are the laws that apply during a war? We discuss the jus in bello and the requirements of discrimination, proportionality and necessity. Just War Theory applied to the current conflict in the Ukraine.
This is the second part of a series on the ethics of war. Find the first part here: The Ukraine Conflict and the Ethics of War.
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The rules in war (jus in bello)
We said last week that the theory of just war distinguishes three different kinds of moral problems:
- The ethics of entering war (jus ad bellum)
- The rules to be obeyed during war (jus in bello)
- The ethics of restoration and peace after a war (jus post bellum)
Today we are examining the second part, the ethical conduct during a war. There are, essentially, three requirements that must be fulfilled for an action in war to count as (relatively) ethical. One should emphasise the “relatively” part, because, for example, radical pacifists might claim that participating in a war, in whatever way, can never be a morally right act.
The three requirements are: discrimination, proportionality and necessity.
Discrimination
First, we must make sure that we target only combatants in a war and not non-combatants like children, old people, and civilians who are not taking part in hostilities.
Philosophically, it is an interesting question why we would make this distinction. If I say that it is not morally right to kill a civilian, but it is morally right to kill the same person if he stands opposite of me in a soldier’s uniform — why would that be? What is it that allows me to kill a soldier, while I am not allowed to kill anyone else?
Why is killing soldiers in war permissible?
I could perhaps try to argue that a soldier poses a threat to my own life, so killing a soldier who is about to kill me is an act of self-defence, and should therefore be permissible. But today’s war is often fought with rockets over great distances. When the enemy fires a rocket and kills a soldier miles away, they cannot argue that this soldier posed any real threat to them. So then, why was it permissible to fire that rocket?
They might try to justify it by saying that the soldier, by freely signing up to be a soldier, has already accepted the possibility that they will be shot at, and therefore it is not immoral to shoot at them. It’s just an occupational risk of sorts. This would be similar to how the Fire Department can justify sending its firemen into a dangerous fire. The Fire Department can expect its firemen to risk their lives in a way that my University employer cannot ask of me. If my University is in danger of burning down, the University administration cannot ask me to risk my life to save it.
Why is this? Because, one might argue, the fireman has freely agreed …
Read the full article which is published on Daily Philosophy (external link)
