Obeying Orders: Atrocity, Military Discipline, and the Law of War
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.98 (730 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 076580798X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 407 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-10-25 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Proposes increased prosecution for Law of War violations In this book, Mr. Osiel contends that the military should be more proactive in prosecuting soldiers for violations of the law of warfare. Osiel contends that current policy generally leads to litigation only in cases of atrocity. To his credit, the author recognizes the complexities of the modern battlefield and the "real-world" impact of imposing new or thicker layers of control within the
Why do soldiers commit atrocities? How can they be prevented from doing so? The questions framing the book are at some level unanswerable, but Oseiel’s thoughtfulness in grappling with this issue is impressive. So too is his sympathetic effort to get inside the mindset of professional soldiers, which leads him to rely (despite his legal background) more on the cultivation of sound judgment than on rules, principles, and orders. William Eckhardt, Chief Prosecutor, My Lai Cases“Professor Osiel has filled a vacuum in legal and military scholarship with a masterwork.”—Col. In the end, Osiel transcends the genre of legal analysis entirely to ground his ethical appeal in the very nature and basis of the military profession itself."—Martin Cook, Naval Law Review“Obeying Orders is must reading…remarkable.”—Col. An important addition to the bookshelf of works on the law of war.”—Foreign Af
When should we excuse his misconduct as based in reasonable error? How can courts convincingly convict the soldier's superior officer when, after Nuremberg, criminal orders are expressed through winks and nods, hints and insinuations? Can our notions of the soldier's "due obedience," designed for the Roman legionnaire, be brought into closer harmony with current understandings of military conflict in the contemporary world? Mark J. Obeying Orders thus offers a compelling answer to the question that has most haunted the moral imagination of the late twentieth century: the roots—and restraint&m
Mark Osiel is professor of law at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Obeying Orders: Military Discipline, Atrocities and the Law of War.