CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

4.1 Introductory Comments
CHAPTER 4: ISSUES OF JUS IN BELLO
This final substantive chapter turns to issues of jus in bello: proper conduct in warfare.
Just war doctrine requires two things for this: proportionality and discrimination; that is
that actions in war, however necessary they are perceived to be, must have a military
necessity that is in proportion to the harm they do; and there must be due discrimination
between those who are legitimate targets in war and those who are innocent bystanders.
The so-called doctrine of double effect allows that military actions may be undertaken
in the knowledge that there will be injury to the innocent, provided that such casualties
are unintended – even though foreseen – and that the test of proportionality is passed.
There is, of course, a great deal of subjective judgement to be made in this but, as has
been argued throughout this thesis, moral legitimacy rests on a broad-based consensus
that one’s actions are reasonable.
As with issues of jus ad bellum, the 20 th Century, in particular, saw increasingly strident
attempts to codify into international law what had erstwhile been moral (and political)
judgements. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) (or, as the military knows it, Law
of Armed Conflict (LOAC)) really began in earnest with the signing of the Geneva
Convention of 1864. Today the capstone of IHL is provided by the four Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and their two associated Additional Protocols (AP) of 1977 1 .
Convention I, For the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed
Forces in the Field, sets out protection for members of the armed forces who become
wounded or sick and Convention II extends the same protections to naval forces.
Convention III, Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War is a highly detailed and
bureaucratic listing of the rights of prisoners of war (even extending to the requirement
for captors to provide access to musical instruments etc!) Convention IV, Relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, deals with the protection of the civilian
population. The 1977 APs, introduced as the prevalence of inter-state conflict
diminished, extend the provisions of the conventions to non-traditional forms of
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