Single Idea 23583

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 1. War / b. Justice in war]

Full Idea

When a country's right to war is questionable and uncertain, the constraints on the means it can use are all the more severe.

Gist of Idea

If an aggression is unjust, the constraints on how it is fought are much stricter

Source

John Rawls (A Theory of Justice [1972], p.379), quoted by Michael Walzer - Just and Unjust Wars 14

Book Reference

Walzer,Michael: 'Just and Unjust Wars' [Penguin 1984], p.229


A Reaction

This is Rawls opposing the idea that combatants are moral equals. The restraints are, of course, moral. In practice aggressors are usually the worst behaved.