The Ethics, Principles and Objectives of Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict

This chapter clarifies the ethical requirements concerning the legal protection of the environment in armed conflict. It takes as its starting point a number of assumptions. The first is that there is an ethical underpinning for the law relating to the protection of the environment in armed conflict. The second assumption is that certain principles can be derived from these underpinnings. Finally, the third assumption is that such principles have inspired and continue to inspire the objectives of designing and applying a legal regime. The chapter demonstrates whether, and if so why, these assumptions are correct. The important principles of the law of armed conflict derived from Rousseau's concept of war are the principle of distinction and the prohibition of 'unnecessary suffering'. It has been shown that the ethical foundations of international humanitarian law and of environmental law have some points in common. Keywords: armed conflict; ethical requirements; international environmental law; international humanitarian law; legal protection; legal regime; Rousseau's concept of war