ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes the potential inductee's claim of selective conscientious objection in order to determine whether it can be legally justified and concludes that it could be. It introduces one of the pervasive themes in the bode: the 1971 policy statement of the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States on Selective Conscientious Objection. The book describes the conflicting pressures which affected the process of policy formulation between 1940 and the end of the Vietnam War. It shows how a claim of selective conscientious objection, and the just war rationale on which it is based, creates particular analytic problems. The book discusses both institutional and legal biases which could lead to a lack of respect for claims of conscience and the implications of her work with the Israeli conscientious objectors.
