The Just War Theory What is Just War

The Just War Theory

What is Just War Theory For? • Most simply: it is a justification for killing people. BUT, theory tries to make killing justified by: • Attempting to reduce the deployment of violence. (police and guns) • To build trust in authority by making the rules for its deployment of force transparent. The theory is an attempt by thinking human beings to find limits for acts that fundamentally throw our humanity into question.

Origins of theory “Will the wise man take his seat on the judge’s bench, or will he not venture to do so? Clearly, he will take his seat; for the claims of human society, which he thinks it wicked to abandon, constrain him and draw him to this duty. He does not think it a wickedness that innocent witnesses should be tortured in cases which are not their own, or that the accused are so often overcome by such great pain that they make false confessions and are punished in spite of their innocence… The philosopher does not consider that these many grievous evils are sins; for…the wise judge does not act in this way through a wish to do harm. ” Augustine, The City of God, Against the Pagans, XIX. 6

Contemporary applicability “We shall miss the point of this if we confine ourselves to observations about the barbarous laws of evidence which obtained in the late empire…. For [Augustine] it is a universal problem about judicial process everywhere. It is a guess as to which party is lying and which telling the truth, and any inquisitorial process adopted to reduce the element of hazard may backfire and defeat its own ends. ” Oliver O’Donovan, “The Political Thought of City of God 19, ” in Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics, Past and Present 70 (2003).

Evils of Peace “. . why do I describe them as evils of peace? … This is the dilemma: on the one hand going to war causes terrible evils, but on the other hand not going to war permits them. Whichever horn one chooses to sit on, the sitting should not be comfortable. Allowing evils to happen is not necessarily innocent, any more than causing them is necessarily culpable. Omission and commission are equally obliged to give an account of themselves. Both stand in need of moral justification. ” Nigel Biggar In Defence of War

Ius ad bellum: The Just Conditions for Going to War • Just cause • Right intention • Proper authority and public declaration • Last resort • Probability of success • Proportionality

1. Just cause • Protection from external attack • the first and foremost (only? ) just cause of war; based on the right of selfdefense. • Article 51 Charter of the United Nations: “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective selfdefense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations. ” Some have maintained the humanitarian intervention is also justified, where we go to war to save the lives of innocent people who are being attacked by an aggressor.

2. Right intention • The war must be pursued for a just cause • United Nations Charter Article 2: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations” • Unacceptable intentions: • Revenge • Political expansion • Land acquisition

3. Proper authority and public declaration • Only nations have the authority to declare war • Wars must be publicly declared, not pursued in secret • Increasingly, there is a need for international agreement (UN backing)

4. Last resort If there are other means of achieving the same objectives, such as negotiations or economic blockades, they should be pursued exhaustively first.

5. Probability of success • War is a great evil • Wrong to cause such killing, suffering, and destruction in a futile effort • Only enter into war if you have a chance of success

6. Proportionality • Are the possible benefits (especially in terms of a just peace) proportional to the death, suffering, and destruction that the pursuit of the war will bring about? • The injustice or harm suffered must justify the decision to go to war and cause widespread suffering.

Cumulative conditions: • Just cause + • Right intention + • Proper authority and public declaration + • Last resort + • Probability of success + • Proportionality • IUS AD BELLUM!

Ius in bello – how to fight a war justly • JUST WAR theory not only about the right conditions for going to war, but also about the right way to fight a war • Two primary conditions here: • 1. Innocents should not be harmed (double effect) • 2. Only appropriate force should be used

Possible to have ius in bello now? • MODERN WARFARE TECHNIQUES • Bombing of innocents unavoidable • Spraying of bullets • Nuclear deterrents • Drone warfare • Transnational movements: ISIS

Is it meaningful to speak of a just war? • Surely ideas of justice change? • This idea grew from Christianity, but not all the world is Christian. • How might Islamic ideas of Jihad or Holy War relate to the • Might we be better to simply speak of lesser evils, rather than just wars? • Can war ever be just, or is it just a tragedy of human existence? • War might be good for something, but this doesn’t mean it’s just!

Can there be a just war? • Certainly, this is a long way from what Augustine might have imagined. • Even further away from what Jesus (whose teachings just war theorists follow) might have wanted: • You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. ‘ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God