Proportionality in International Law

Michael Newton is Professor of the Practice of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School. He formerly taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and at the Judge Advocate General's School and Center. Professor Newton has written extensively about use of force issues, international jurisprudence, and the enforcement of international law. His co-authored work, Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein (with Michael Scharf) won book-of-the-year honors from the American Section of International Association of Penal Law. He also won Article of Year honors in 2011 for his article entitled Evolving Equality: The Development of the International Defense Bar, published in the Stanford Journal of International Law.arry May is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Law, and Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He has published over thirty books, including book length studies of each of the fours crimes under the ICC's jurisdiction. His books have won awards in philosophy, law, and international relations. He has also published extensively on the history of the Just War tradition, especially on the work of Grotius and Hobbes.

There are few topics in the law governing conflict more complicated and elusive than proportionality. Accomplished international lawyers struggle to grasp the important difference between application of the concept in the law of self-defense and international humanitarian law. Contemporary means and methods of warfare such as cyber-attack and the use of voluntary human shields have exacerbated the complexity modern decision-makers and warfighters face when addressing real-world proportionality issues. Professors Newton and May have skillfully teased apart international law's variants of proportionality in a manner that is both accessible and sophisticated. Of particular note is their interdisciplinary approach and use of real-world examples. I commend this work to scholars and practitioners alike.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. What is Proportionality? ; 3. Proportionality: A Multiplicity of Meanings ; 4. Proportionality in the Just War Tradition ; 5. Proportionality in International Humanitarian Law ; 6. Proportionality in Human Rights Law and Morality ; 7. The Uniqueness of Jus in Bello Proportionality ; 8. Countermeasures and Counterinsurgency ; 9. Human Shields and Risk ; 10. Targeted Killings and Proportionality in Law: Two Models ; 11. The Nature of War and the Idea of "Cyberwar" ; 12. Thresholds of Jus in Bello Proportionality ; Bibliography ; Index