Tort Liability in Warfare

Rezensionen / Stimmen

This is a fine book that is a source of inspiration and optimism for scholars and practitioners interested in tort liability in warfare. It offers a compelling moral and legal justification for imposing tort liability for belligerent wrongs. In explaining how tort law could and should apply in this context, it demonstrates a means to achieve much-needed redress and accountability for wrongful belligerent activities. The book also provides a useful analysis of key constituent elements of such a tort liability regime. Dr Abraham's book will undoubtedly be an indispensable resource for conducting future work in this field. * Ugljesa Grusic, Professor of Private International Law, UCL Faculty of Laws * At its core, this book serves as a compelling call to recognize the delicate balance in tort law-one that provides procedural protections for all parties while ensuring that military commanders and soldiers are not paralysed by the constant fear of litigation, provided they comply with their legal obligations and rules of engagement. More significantly, it challenges us to expand our gaze beyond public international law and consider the instructive role of tort law in addressing harm inflicted during warfare. In doing so, it invites a broader conversation about how best law can protect and remedy civilian harm in modern armed conflict. * Luke Moffett, Professor of Law, Queen's University Belfast, School of Law * This book is an incredible achievement because tort lawyers have not gone there before and the level of engagement with warfare in tort theory has so far been minimal. The book is not only filling a gap, it is opening a door for future work there, and I can see it being a talking point for quite a long time. A further distinctive feature of the book is that while some defenses of the idea of corrective justice and the idea that torts are wrongs have been overly formalist in character, and this is not the Abraham's approach. His account of corrective justice and tort law as having an expressive function that is an important part of tort law. This approach has a major payoff, as the book can speak to people beyond tort law, to all those who are concerned about accountability for rights violations. * Emmanuel Voyiakis, Professor of Law, LSE Law School * This book offers a remarkably original re- examination of a core legal principle that tort lawyers generally take for granted: that it would be inappropriate to impose private law liability for acts and omissions committed in the heat of battle. Abraham focuses on a number of primarily common law jurisdictions: England and Wales, Australia, Canada, the United States, with Israel as a mixed jurisdiction. Comparative law gives Abraham the tools he needs to engage in his normative study-it provides sample material to be critically sifted and appraised in the light of academic commentary. No-one can doubt Haim Abraham's immense commitment to this project and that it has resulted in a monograph which is challenging, controversial and well researched. * Paula Giliker, Professor in Comparative Law, University of Bristol Law School * As this book cogently argues, using tort law in the context of armed conflicts makes sense because it provides access to courts. If there is no access to courts to address the harms caused by military action you would have no accountability whatsoever. * Carla Ferstman, Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Centre, Essex Law School *