Lives in the Balance: Targeting and Civilian Comparative Value

Authors

Christopher F. Melling

Abstract

When United States commanders want to attack lawful targets, they must decide if the attack is proportional under the Law of Armed Conflict ("LOAC'). The attack cannot cause excessive harm to civilians compared to the strike's military benefit. To help commanders decide if the strike is proportional, intelligence analysts forecast the number of men, women, and children who may be injured or killed as collateral damage. Yet because civilians are not equal for the purpose of targeting, commanders have no viable standard for evaluating the limited, homogenous data they receive on civilians. Commanders should have more information to help them make better informed proportionality decisions. This Article proposes a system for measuring Comparative Civilian Values ("CCV') based on the identity of civilians and their activities. CCV will support LOAC by promoting a more objective proportionality decision and giving commanders a practical rubric to synthesize information on civilians.

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | International Law | Law | Military, War, and Peace

Recommended Citation

Christopher F. Melling, Lives in the Balance: Targeting and Civilian Comparative Value, 6 Cardozo Int’l & Compar. L. Rev. 121 (2022).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ciclr/vol6/iss1/5