ABSTRACT
The principle of non-combatant immunity, in its usual modern formulation, prohibits any direct military attack on non-combatants. In most modern applications of the just war theory the principle is afforded considerable prominence and is normally deemed to be an absolute principle, admitting of no exception. Double effect has a much wider application than simply within the just war theory, for it can be used to soften the rigours of any absolute ethical principle. Double effect has thus a very considerable attraction for moral absolutists, that is, those who hold that some fundamental moral principles are absolutely binding. The Allies’ area bombing campaign against Germany probably started with the attack on the city of Mannheim in December 1940, in reprisal for the German devastation of Coventry. City bombing then continued right up to the end of the war, albeit increasingly supplemented, particularly from 1944, by more accurate attacks — made possible by improved targeting techniques — on military and industrial assets.
