Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics

Living Edition
| Editors: Deborah C Poff, Alex C. Michalos

The Economics and Business of War and Responsibility for Unjust Wars

Living reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_19-1

Introduction

Wars, whether or not they are morally justified, require economic support. And if the war is justified, then businesses supporting such wars might be worthy of moral praise, contingent on the manner(s) in which they supported such war efforts. But if a war is not morally justified, then generally businesses supporting it are morally liable to blame and even responsible to be legally punished being that they are contributory causes of, or at least supporting, its untoward damages to the victims of the war. Moreover, wars can be unjust contingent on the extent to which they fail to satisfy conditions of a just war, and this holds true even if the cause of the war is just. Generally, for a war to be a just one, it must satisfy both the just cause (jus in bello) and justice during war (jus ad bellum) conditions of a just war.

Given that significant participation in an unjust war is itself a crime of war, then those who do so must be held accountable to the extent that they do...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Boxill BR (1977) The morality of reparations. In: Gross B (ed) Reverse discrimination. Prometheus, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  2. Corlett JA (2003) Race, racism, and reparations. Cornell University Press, IthacaGoogle Scholar
  3. Corlett JA (2010) Heirs of oppression. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, LanhamGoogle Scholar
  4. Corlett JA (2014) Responsibility and punishment, 4th edn. Springer, Dordrecht. Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, volume 9Google Scholar
  5. Feinberg J (1970) Doing and deserving. Princeton University Press, PrincetonGoogle Scholar
  6. McGary H (1999) Blacks and social justice. Blackwell, LondonGoogle Scholar
  7. Rawls J (1999) The law of peoples. Harvard University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.San Diego State UniversitySan DiegoUSA

Section editors and affiliations

  • J. Angelo Corlett
    • 1
  1. 1.San Diego State UniversitySan DiegoUSA