Article

Massacres and morality : mass killing in an age of civilian immunity

Alex J. Bellamy

• Human rights quarterly : a comparative and international journal of the social sciences, humanities, and law, Vol. 34, no. 4, November 2012, p. 927-958

English

The norm of civilian immunity, which holds that civilians must not be intentionally targeted in war or subjected to mass killing, is widely supported and considered a jus cogens principle of international law. Yet not only does mass killing remain a recurrent feature of world politics, but perpetrators sometimes avoid criticism or punishment. This article argues that the paradox can be explained by understanding that civilian immunity confronts a protracted struggle with competing ideologies, some of which have proven resilient, and that decisions about how to interpret the norm in specific cases are subject to intervening contextual variables.

• Human rights quarterly : a comparative and international journal of the social sciences, humanities, and law / ed. by the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, University of Cincinnati, College of Law
• Human rights quarterly : a comparative and international journal of the social sciences, humanities, and law [Vol. 34, no. 4, November 2012] / ed. by the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, University of Cincinnati, College of Law