War By Agreement: A Contractarian Ethics of War [Hardcover]

Yitzhak Benbaji and Daniel Statman present a new theory on the ethics of war which shows that wars can be morally justified at both thead bellumlevel (the political decision to go to war) and thein bellolevel (its actual conduct by the military).War by Agreementpresents a new theory on the ethics of war. It shows that wars can be morally justified at both thead bellumlevel (the political decision to go to war) and thein bellolevel (its actual conduct by the military)by accepting a contractarian account of the rules governing war. According to this account, the rules of war are anchored in a mutually beneficial and fair agreement between the relevant players - the purpose of which is to promote peace and to reduce the horrors of war. The book relies on the long social contract tradition and illustrates its fruitfulness in understanding and developing the morality and the law of war.Preface1. Introduction2. Foundations of a Non-Individualist Morality3. A Contractarian Account of the Crime of Aggression4. The Aims of Just Wars and Jus Ex Bello5. Contractarianism and the Moral Equality of Combatants6. Contractarianism and the Moral Equality of Civilians7. When the Agreement Collapses8. Concluding RemarksYitzhak Benbaji,Professor of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University,Daniel Statman,Head of the Philosophy Department, University of HaifaYitzhak Benbaji teaches philosophy at Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law. He previously worked in the Department of Philosophy and in the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University (2002-12). He has been a visiting scholar and professor at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, the University of Toronto, Northwestern University, Yale Law School, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Jerusalem. His fields of interest are just war theory, political theory, theories of distributive justice, and philosophy of language. Among his publication areThe View from Within(Notre Damel£