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Cosmopolitan Justice and Criminal States
Author(s) -
Pasternak Avia
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of applied philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.339
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5930
pISSN - 0264-3758
DOI - 10.1111/japp.12310
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , criminal liability , political science , economic justice , liability , law , criminology , state (computer science) , armed conflict , war crime , sociology , law and economics , criminal law , international law , biochemistry , chemistry , algorithm , computer science
Abstract Cécile Fabre's monumental work Cosmopolitan Peace offers a thorough investigation of the responsibilities that agents incur through their involvement in armed conflict. However, her analysis fails to acknowledge the central role that states play in initiating and orchestrating acts of war. I argue that states are corporate moral agents, who are morally responsible for their own wrongdoings during an unjust war, and that this argument is compatible with Fabre's cosmopolitan premises. I then suggest that a systematic account of criminal liability in the aftermath of a war should acknowledge the role that states play in orchestrating wars and committing war crimes.