Puzzles of Proportion and the 'Reasonable Military Commander': Reflections on the Law, Ethics, and Geopolitics of Proportionality
Journal: eYLS (Yale Law School)
Year: 2015

This article offers modest reflections on jus in bello proportionality. It suggests that the law of armed conflict (LOAC) build on the only consensus legal standard that exists: that of the good-faith reasonable military commander. The difficulty — here, as with any reasonableness standard — is to identify factors that realistically can, and legally should, guide adherence to it and to consider the objective and subjective dimensions of judgments under the standard. Part II scrutinizes the conte