Hugo Grotius’s De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Laws of War and Peace1625) was one of the first modern attempts to articulate a philosophy of law that included prohibitions against attacking and/or killing women, children, the elderly, clergymen, “men of the letters” (that is, intellectuals), prisoners of war, slaves, and, more broadly speaking, anyone who was not actively engaged in hostilities against warring nations (see De Jure Belli ac Pacis, 3.11.8-12). Moreover, Grotius’s wartime prohibitions excluded scattering and/or killing livestock, confiscating civilian property, and unnecessarily destroying the homelands and/or territories of enemy nations (see De Jure Belli ac Pacis3.12.1-4). Of course, this means that, for Grotius, while it is acceptable to destroy artillery and military installations as a way of preventing one’s enemies from continuing to fight, it is not acceptable to engage in the indiscriminate and wanton destruction of enemy property simply because one is at war. Grotius...