Reparation for Civilian Victims in Expeditionary Interventions: Beyond the Current Frameworks of Ethics, Law, and International Relations

Civilian casualties in military operations involving major Western powers have started to attract public attention and debates. While the current ethical and legal frameworks, embodied in the Just War tradition (JWT) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) respectively, prohibit direct attack on civilians, they permit harming civilians in indirect and proportionate attacks, so long as the attacks are considered legitimate. The emerging literature on ethics concerning civilian casualties points to the tension between the norms of non-combatant immunity and force protection and deals with complex ethical issues in contemporary counter-insurgency wars. This volume provides a theoretical explanation of why civilians accidentally harmed in expeditionary interventions should receive reparations. To do this, it looks beyond the current frameworks of JWT and IHL and focuses specifically on expeditionary interventions to analyse theoretical frameworks that govern compensation and reparation. Furthermore, this volume carefully examines whether arguments derived from the theory of liability and restorative justice could be applied to the context of accidental civilian casualties in armed conflict and discusses specific considerations in the context of contemporary counter-insurgency, such as whether victims should receive reparations where local insurgencies used ‘human shields,’ and how victims of direct attacks by insurgents should be treated. Appealing to a wide audience from multiple disciplines, this volume is designed for scholars and courses on military ethics, international relations, and peace studies.