Stosunek do nieprzyjaciela – próba oceny etyki wojskowej z punktu widzenia standardów międzynarodowego prawa konfliktów zbrojnych

Abstract

Marcin Wiśniewski

Attitude towards Enemy – Attempt at an Appraisal of Military Ethics by Joseph M. Bocheński from the Points of View of International Standards and International Law in the Field of Armed Conflicts

Abstract

Joseph M. Bocheński’s treatise with the title De virtute militari is known as one of his most important works. It covers a wide range of problems in the field of military ethics and it contains extensive portions dedicated to norms regulating attitude towards an enemy. Admissibility of applying determined ways of conducting combat is also the subject of regulations of the international law of armed conflicts.
In this article the author has made an attempt to judge Bocheński’s military ethics from the point of view of the standards for preservation of participants in armed conflicts determined by the norms of the international law. That being so the important issues have been discussed; for example, admissibility of attacking the civilian population, an ethical appraisal of armed conflicts directed against monuments and cultural achievements, issues of moral appraisal of war stratagems. The analysis of ethics standards towards an enemy presented in De virtue militari is coincident with the laws on the standards of preservation of participants of armed conflict in the field of an international war. Bocheński’s treatise is a unique example of artistic application of thoughts of Saint Thomas Aquinas in comparison with the achievements of modern theoreticians of military thought.

Keywords: Joseph M. Bocheński, military ethics, international law of armed conflicts, preservation of monuments and cultural achievements, war stratagems, Saint Thomas Aquinas.