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Sparing Civilians, written by Seth Lazar

Sparing Civilians, written by Seth Lazar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 176 pages. isbn: 9780198712985. Hardback: £ 25.00.Killing civilians is worse than killing soldiers. This is the central thesis that Seth Lazar defends in his book Sparing Civilians. Civilian immunity has been one of the most fundamental principles of just war theory. But recent works by Jeff McMahan, Cecile Fabre, and Helen Frowe radically question the perceived truism that civilians qua civilians should be afforded special protection in war. The principle of civilian immunity is inconsistent with the now dominant responsibility-based approach to the ethics of war, according to which moral responsibility for an unjustified threat determines one’s liability to be killed. On this view, the principle of civilian immunity as upheld in traditional just war theory and international law no longer seems sustainable because it is based on group membership and not on individual responsibility. Lazar objects to this implication of responsibility-based accounts and instead defends what he calls the Moral Distinction thesis: “In war, with rare exceptions, killing non-combatants is worse than killing combatants” (p. 2). This holds even when both non-combatant and combatant are not liable to be killed.With rich illustrations of historical and contemporary examples, reminiscent of Michael Walzer’s classic Just http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Moral Philosophy Brill

Sparing Civilians, written by Seth Lazar

Hecht, Lisa
Journal of Moral Philosophy , Volume 15 (1): 4 – Jan 25, 2018
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1740-4681
eISSN
1745-5243
DOI
10.1163/17455243-01501010
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 176 pages. isbn: 9780198712985. Hardback: £ 25.00.Killing civilians is worse than killing soldiers. This is the central thesis that Seth Lazar defends in his book Sparing Civilians. Civilian immunity has been one of the most fundamental principles of just war theory. But recent works by Jeff McMahan, Cecile Fabre, and Helen Frowe radically question the perceived truism that civilians qua civilians should be afforded special protection in war. The principle of civilian immunity is inconsistent with the now dominant responsibility-based approach to the ethics of war, according to which moral responsibility for an unjustified threat determines one’s liability to be killed. On this view, the principle of civilian immunity as upheld in traditional just war theory and international law no longer seems sustainable because it is based on group membership and not on individual responsibility. Lazar objects to this implication of responsibility-based accounts and instead defends what he calls the Moral Distinction thesis: “In war, with rare exceptions, killing non-combatants is worse than killing combatants” (p. 2). This holds even when both non-combatant and combatant are not liable to be killed.With rich illustrations of historical and contemporary examples, reminiscent of Michael Walzer’s classic Just

Journal

Journal of Moral Philosophy – Brill

Published: Jan 25, 2018

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