Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace

24 – 25 of June, 2016
Walxholms Hotel, Vaxholm

Schedule

12.00 – 13.15: Lunch

13.30 – 14.15: Gerald Lang (Leeds)

14.15 – 14.45: Coffee

14.45 – 16.00: Jonathan Parry (Birmingham)

16.10 – 17.25: Lars Christie (Oslo and Oxford)

Dinner / Overnight

09.30 – 10.45: Nicola Kemp (USC)

10.45 – 11.15: Coffee

11.15 – 12.30: Victor Tadros (Warwick)

12.30 – 13.30: Lunch

Much of the recent just war literature understands the ethics of war in terms of the rights and duties of individuals. In War and Individual Rights (OUP, 2015) Kai Draper takes individual rights as his point of departure, arguing that such rights serve as constraints not only in the face of individual interests, but also national interests. From this, he develops a novel account of the ethics of war that he argues is more consistent with a rights-based approach than other rights-based views. One of Draper’s central claims is that we ought to reject the doctrine of double effect – one of the traditional cornerstones of the just war tradition – as both untenable and pernicious. Neither the standard doctrine, nor relatives of it, succeed as justification for killing the innocent. However, Draper does not embrace pacifism. Rather, he suggests that, amongst other things, a person’s being an expected beneficiary of a war can justify imposing risks of harms on her. Draper also argues that some non-combatants become liable to attack by causally contributing to an unjust war, but that not all contributions will result in such liability.

Draper’s book is a significant publication in the field. Papers at the workshop will in part respond to Draper’s arguments and in part develop ideas from the book. The workshop is free to attend, but places are limited. It will take place at Waxholms Hotell on Vaxholm in the Stockholm archipelago (Vaxholm is accessible by regular ferry boats and by bus or car). The workshop begins after lunch on the 24^th, and concludes after lunch on the 25^th.

If you would like to attend, please email Helen ([email protected]) by Friday 3rd June.

Photo Credit: Bjorn Tesch/imagebank.sweden.se