Cancelled - The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War

Monday, 16 March 2020

11 March 2020 - Coronavirus: update
All public events at the WZB have to be cancelled with immediate effect. This measure will be effective until 20 July 2020. It is based on today's decision by the Governing Mayor of Berlin to introduce a range of urgent measures for Berlin's research institutions to counter the further spread of the Corona-virus.

Workshop and Discussion of the book by Alec D. Walen in the presence of the author

According to the dominant account of rights, there are two ways to permissibly kill people: they have done something to forfeit their right to life, or their rights are outweighed by the significantly greater cost of respecting them. Contemporary just war theorists tend to agree that it is difficult to justify killing in the second way. Thus, they focus on the conditions under which rights might be forfeited. But it has proven hard to defend an account of forfeiture that permits killing when and only when it is morally justifiable.

Book Cover: The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killings in War

Oxford University Press; Hardback

Published: 09 May 2019

264 Pages

235x156mm

ISBN: 9780190872045

Prof. Dr. Alec D. Walen

Professor Walen holds a joint appointment in the School of Law, the Philosophy Department and the Program in Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA . He is serving as Director of the Program in Criminal Justice. The central focus of his current work is articulating a view of rights that reflects a fundamental moral commitment to autonomy, equality, and the value of human welfare.