Gabriella Blum and John C. P. Goldberg (Harvard Law School and Harvard Law School) have posted War for the Wrong Reasons: Lessons from Law (11 Journal of Moral Philosophy 454 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In Ethics for Enemies: Terror, Torture, and War (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics)
, Frances Kamm argues that, under certain conditions, it is morally permissible for a state to launch a war for opportunistic reasons. We consider how law might shed light on Kamm’s argument. Part I addresses the application of criminal and tort law to individual acts of violence analogous to the acts of war analyzed by Kamm. It primarily argues that these bodies of law rely on a framework for determining legal permissibility that runs counter to, and perhaps demonstrates weaknesses in, Kamm’s framework for assessing moral permissibility. Part II considers the law of war. It maintains that, although modern law permits certain opportunistic acts of war, the law does so on terms that cut against Kamm’s claim as to their moral permissibility.
Highly recommended.
