Case #10: Just War and Pacifism

Augustine of Hippo

(Contra Faustus, xxii, 74-75)

1. Proper Authority: "The Natural order conducive to peace among mortals demands that the power to declare and counsel war would be in the hands of those who hold supreme authority."
2. Proper Cause: "The passion for inflicting harm, the cruel thirst for vengeance, and unpacific and relentless spirit, the fever of revolt, the lust of power, and such like things, all these are rightly condemned in war."

Thomas Aquinas

(Summa Theologica, II-II. Q40.1)

1. Proper Authority: "In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war is to be waged. For it is not the business of a private individual to declare war, because he can seek for redress of his rights from the tribunal of his superior. Moreover it is not the business of a private individual to summon together the people, which has to be done in wartime. And, as the care of the common weal is committed to those who are in authority, it is their business to watch over the common weal of the city, kingdom or province subject to them."
2. Proper Cause: "Secondly, a just cause is required, namely that those who are attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault."
3. Proper Intention: "Thirdly, it is necessary that the belligerents should have a rightful intention, so that they intend the advancement of good, or the avoidance of evil."

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

(The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace [1993])
The following criteria (ius ad bellum), taken as a whole, must be satisfied in order to override the strong presumption against the use of force:

IUS AD BELLUM ("Right" to go to War)

• Just Cause: force may be used only to correct a grave, public evil, i.e. aggression or massive violation of the basic rights of whole populations;
• Comparative Justice: while there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other;
• Legitimate Authority: only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war;
• Right Intention: force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose;
• Probability of Success: arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success;
• Proportionality: the overall destruction expected from the use of force must be outweighed by the good to be achieved;
• Last Resort: force may be used only after all peaceful alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.

The Just War tradition seeks also to curb the violence of war through restraint on armed combat between the contending parties by imposing the following moral standards (ius in bello) for the conduct of armed conflict.

IUS IN BELLO ("Right" in War)

• Noncombatant Immunity: civilians may not be the object of direct attack and military personnel must take due care to avoid and minimize indirect harm to civilians;

• Proportionality: in the conduct of hostilities, efforts must be made to attain military objectives with no more force than is militarily necessary and to avoid disproportionate collateral damage to civilian life and property;
• Right Intention: even in the midst of conflict, the aim of political and military leaders must be peace with justice, so that acts of vengeance and indiscriminate violence, whether by individuals, military units, or governments, are forbidden.