ABSTRACT

There is a Kantian perspective on the justice of conduct in war, and it constitutes a principled and vocal variant on the usual understandings offered by the just war tradition and the laws of armed conflict. Starting with Kant’s own account, this chapter moves on to identify six distinct propositions which together constitute a contemporary Kantian jus in bello, and then concludes by reflecting intensively on its strengths and weaknesses. As Kant himself argued, “The greatest difficulty in the right of nations has to do precisely with right during war; it is difficult even to form a concept of this or to think of law in this lawless state without contradicting oneself” (Kant 1995b, 117).