Civilians

• Main Author: Nolan, Cathal J.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2022
• Subjects: Bello; Canada; Lawrence River; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190077280.003.0011; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/46872716/oso-9780190077280-chapter-11.pdf

Abstract This chapter reviews the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate killings in the jus in bello, the laws of wartime behavior. It explores how the laws of war were drafted by the powerful to favor themselves, noting that the strong disdain restraint by law because they can, while the weak disregard law in war because they must. It critiques the Lieber code said to have advanced the laws of war as a wartime justification for hard war against any resistance to state authority. That leads to extremism at both ends with civilians trapped in the middle. The chapter talks about targeting persons for torture or killing who would be classified as civilians, an established pattern in First Nations conflicts in the Americas. Precolonial wars were fought down to the village level between Iroquois and Algonquin in upper New York, Lower Canada, the Great Lakes, and St. Lawrence River valley. It all got worse in the 20th century, as major belligerents in the two world wars and afterward all turned to blockade, starvation, and terror tactics to break civilian morale.