Weighing Lives in War: Domestic versus Foreign

Cambridge Handbook on the Just War, Ed. Larry May. Cambridge University Press, 2018 (DOI: 10.1017/9781316591307.012)

13 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2018

See all articles by Saba Bazargan-Forward

Saba Bazargan-Forward

UC San Diego; University of San Diego School of Law

Date Written: February 1, 2018

Abstract

I argue that the lives of domestic and enemy civilians should not receive equal weight in our proportionality calculations. Rather, the lives of enemy civilians ought to be “partially discounted” relative to the lives of domestic civilians. We ought to partially discount the lives of enemy civilians for the following reason. When our military wages a just war, we as civilians vest our right to self-defense in our military. This permits our military to weigh our lives more heavily. Before arguing for this view I first explain why recent accounts attempting to show the opposite – that enemy civilians ought to be weighed more heavily – are mistaken.

Keywords: just war theory, liability, proportionality, civilians, fiduciary duties, agent-relative permissions, self-defense

Suggested Citation

Bazargan-Forward, Saba, Weighing Lives in War: Domestic versus Foreign (February 1, 2018). Cambridge Handbook on the Just War, Ed. Larry May. Cambridge University Press, 2018 (DOI: 10.1017/9781316591307.012), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3209894

Saba Bazargan-Forward (Contact Author)

UC San Diego ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0119
United States

HOME PAGE: http://philosophy.ucsd.edu/people/faculty-sites/sbazargan.html

University of San Diego School of Law ( email )

5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
United States

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