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47 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 201 (2015)
Nonlethal Weapons, Noncombatant Immunity, and the Principle of Participatory Liability

handle is hein.journals/cwrint47 and id is 209 raw text is: CASE WESTERN RESERVE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 47 (2015) NONLETHAL WEAPONS, NONCOMBATANT IMMUNITY, AND THE PRINCIPLE OF PARTICIPATORY LIABILITY Michael L. Gross, In defiance of international law, nonlethal weapons inflict direct harm upon noncombatants. To permit their use, this paper considers three competing arguments. First, nonlethal weapons inflict no harm; second, nonlethal weapons cause harm but do not violate the principle of noncombatant immunity; and third, some civilians, namely those who providing war sustaining aid, are liable to nonlethal harm under the principle of participatory liability. The first claim has no merit. Nonlethal weapons inflict pain and suffering, albeit transitory. Combatants, however, are not always protected from all forms of direct harm. When subjected to economic sanctions, for example, noncombatants may suffer severe hardship. By analogy, noncombatants may suffer limited harm from nonlethal weapons when intended to prevent greater harms that come from conventional military attacks. Finally, not all noncombatants deserve immunity at all. Those providing war sustaining aid are liable to disabling but nonlethal force. 1. Michael L. Gross is Professor and Head of the School of Political Science at The University of Haifa, Israel. He holds a BA from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, MA from Northwestern University (Philosophy) and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He has published widely in military ethics and military medical ethics and related questions of national security. He has been a visiting fellow at The University of Chicago, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and the European University Institute, Department of Political and Social Sciences in Florence, Italy. He serves on regional and national bioethics committees in Israel and has led workshops and lectured on battlefield ethics, medicine and national security for the Dutch Ministry of Defense, The US Army Medical Department at Walter Reed Medical Center, The US Naval Academy, the International Committee of Military Medicine and the Medical Corps and National Security College of the Israel Defense Forces. His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, The Journal of Military Ethics, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Hastings Center Report, The Journal of Medical Ethics, the Journal of Applied Philosophy, Social Forces and elsewhere. His books include: ETHICS AND ACTIVISM (1997); BIOETHICS AND ARMED CONFLICT (2006); MORAL DILEMMAS OF MODERN WAR (2010); an edited volume, MILITARY MEDICAL ETHICS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (Michael L. Gross & Don Carrick eds., 2013); and THE ETHICS OF INSURGENCY: A CRITICAL GUIDE TO JUST GUERRILLA WARFARE (2015).

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