Kant and the Law of War Format: Hardcover

This book is a major intervention into just war theory by the most influential contemporary interpreter and exponent of Kant's legal and political philosophy. Building on Kantian foundations, it offers a reconceptualization of the duties of the state and the norms governing war. Ripstein argues that a special morality governs war because of its distinctive immorality: The wrongfulness of entering or remaining in a condition in which force decides everything provides the standards for evaluating the grounds of initiating war, the ways in which wars may be fought, and the results of past wars.

Arthur Ripstein is Professor of Law and Philosophy and University Professor at the University of Toronto, where he holds the Howard Beck QC Chair in law. He was educated at the Universities of Manitoba (BA) and Pittsburgh (PhD) and Yale Law School. He was awarded the 2021 Killam Prize for the Humanities by the Canada Council for the Arts.