The Morality of the Laws of War

THE MORALITY OF THE LAWS OF WAR

Professor Yitzhak Benbaji, Tel-Aviv University

In the last two decades, the revisionist just war theory powerfully argues that, as they stand, the laws of war lack moral justification. Revisionists stress that the legal right granted to soldiers on both sides to kill each other in war, and the requirement to maintain a strict distinction in warfare between combatants and noncombatants, are morally groundless. In their recent book, “War by Agreement,” Prof. Yitzhak Benbaji and Prof. Daniel Statman argue in response that the laws of war are morally justified in virtue of being part of a mutually beneficial and fair agreement between states. “War by Agreement” offers a contractarian ethics of war.

This event is hosted by the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.