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Military, War, and Peace Commons

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Vanderbilt University Law School

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Military force

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Military, War, and Peace

Proportionality In Military Force At War's Multiple Levels: Averting Civilian Casualties Vs. Safeguarding Soldiers, Ziv Bohrer, Mark Osiel Jan 2013

Proportionality In Military Force At War's Multiple Levels: Averting Civilian Casualties Vs. Safeguarding Soldiers, Ziv Bohrer, Mark Osiel

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

To what lengths may a state go to protect its soldiers in war? May it design its military operations to further that goal if this significantly increases civilian casualties? International law currently offers no clear answers. Because recent wars have seen many states prioritize soldier safety over avoiding civilian casualties, spirited debate has arisen over the legal defensibility of this practice. This debate currently focuses on an ethics code proposed by two influential Israeli thinkers and allegedly embodied in Israel's conduct of its 2008-2009 Gaza war with Hamas. This Article shows that current discussion fails to appreciate how judgments about …


The Reemergence Of German Arms: How Far Will Germany's March Toward Full Use Of Military Force Go?, Walter J. Lemanski Jan 1996

The Reemergence Of German Arms: How Far Will Germany's March Toward Full Use Of Military Force Go?, Walter J. Lemanski

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In 1994, the German Federal Constitutional Court handed down a landmark decision redefining the constitutionality of German use of military force. For more than forty years, the German government claimed that the German Constitution forbade the use of military forces for other than the defense of NATO territory. The Federal Constitutional Court, however, held that a majority vote of Parliament was all that was required to commit forces to military actions sanctioned by collective security agreements. In 1995, for the first time since World War II, Germany sent offensive military forces into a combat zone. These events raise the question …