A New Proposal for Liability in War

Abstract

AbstractAfter defending revisionist just war theory in the previous chapter, I now turn to show how the evidence-relative account of liability attribution not only coheres with revisionism, but further advances the view. I do this by contending with the powerful real-world objection that holds we can never actually apply a revisionist approach in real combat. I argue that we could do so, not only in theory but in partial practice, by modifying the rules of engagement in such a way to create a degreed-tier system of combatant and noncombatant status in war. This status would be based on the agent’s reasonably perceived liability, rather than mere threat of harm or status as a member of a military, or not. I propose that such an approach, while incredibly difficult, would be possible, and explore some contemporary cases to demonstrate this. In particular, I show how the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine presents stark examples of this approach’s moral strengths.