The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder

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Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (Assistant Professor of Law, Assistant Professor of Law, Gould School of Law, University of Southern California)

The Morality of the Laws of War

War, Law, and Murder

Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (Assistant Professor of Law, Assistant Professor of Law, Gould School of Law, University of Southern California)

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English

Oxford University Press
11 August 2023

Series: Oxford Monographs in International Humanitarian & Criminal Law

Combatants are equal under the laws of armed conflict, regardless of whether the wars they fight are just or unjust, legal or illegal. They are permissible targets and can kill each other in battle. This basic feature of international law has been recently put into question by a group of moral philosophers known as revisionists, who argue that just combatants in an unjust war should be considered innocents, and their deaths considered murder.

Dr. Prieto Rudolphy explains and assesses the conflict between the revisionist argument and the existing legal norms in The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder. The book provides an in-depth assessment of modern ethical thought on killing in wartime, deconstructing the revisionist view of war and offering a new perspective on the legal equality of combatants.

Prieto Rudolphy not only examines the tension between the revisionist morality and the traditional thesis of symmetry between combatants but proposes a contingent justification of the latter and an alternative morality of war. Underlying both is the inescapable fact that regulating war is always a moral compromise. At the same time, she argues that there is urgent moral pressure to improve our laws - to bring them closer to an ideal whereby war does not exist. The Morality of the Laws of War is a must-read for scholars of moral philosophy and international law, from students to experts, providing a thorough account of contemporary debates on the ethics of warfare and using nuanced arguments to illuminate a fresh perspective.

By: Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (Assistant Professor of Law Assistant Professor of Law Gould School of Law University of Southern California)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780192855473
ISBN 10: 0192855476
Series: Oxford Monographs in International Humanitarian & Criminal Law
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 11 August 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: Introduction Part I. The revisionist morality and the laws of war 2: Combatants and the privilege to kill 3: Regulating murder: instrumentalism and the revisionist morality Part II. Attenuating instrumentalism and the revisionist morality 4: Non-instrumentalism and the revisionist morality 5: Just wars, just combatants, just killings? 6: The non-liability of unjust combatants 7: Beyond self-defense 8: Unjust combatants Conclusion: the peace that was promised

Marcela Prieto Rudolphy is assistant professor of law at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law and Profesora Adjunta Extraordinaria en la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Escuela de Derecho. Prieto graduated summa cum laude from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2020, she obtained her JSD degree from New York University. Her dissertation won the 2021 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award in Social Sciences. From 2012-2014, Prieto worked at the Chilean Ministry of Interior prosecuting crimes against humanity committed during Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. She is co-editor in chief of the Spanish issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law.

Reviews for The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder

It is a book that needs to be studied... The writing is very accessible...as is true of many philosophical texts. * John Hutchins, Medicine, Conflict and Survival *

Winner of Winner, 2023 New Author Book Award, American Branch of the International Law Association.
Winner of Winner, 2024 Lieber Prize Winner, 2023 New Author Book Award, American Branch of the International Law Association.