Limits to legitimate force in future conflicts. Towards an advancement of international humanitarian law.

Are soldiers allowed to fire at civilians? We say: Of course not! What, however, if the unarmed civilian is in the process of inciting three child soldiers to open fire on the soldiers? Should the soldiers aim at the children or at the individual behind the incitement? Situations such as this are no longer purely hypothetical in today’s war zones. They compel us to reconsider the norms established up to now in relation to the legitimate use of force in war. The issue requires be looked at from three distinctly different angles: judicial, political-scientific and philosophical.

Without wishing to detract in any way from the significance of the legal or political-scientific implications of the question, the project is geared towards contributing to the philosophical-ethical debate on international humanitarian law (on the issue of the justice in war), in other words, towards fundamentally questioning the legitimacy of the use of force in the first place, whilst, at the same time, remaining considerate of the legal shortcomings in human action and the leeway afforded within the law to accommodate those shortcomings. The results developed within the framework of a philosophical ethic must, however, be firmly embedded at all times in the context of soldierly practice and the perception of appropriate action as established within the confines of that practice.

Responsible for the project: Dr. Bernhard Koch
Email: koch@ithf.de
Telephone: +49 (0)40 / 67 08 59-14