The Morality of Retributive Targeted Killing

Abstract

This article assesses whether the contemporary consensus of just war thinking to allow only for defence as just cause for war between states should also be applied to the practice of targeted killing of non-state actors. It argues that it should not and puts forward an argument for a just cause of retribution for war between states and culpable unjust individuals. Grounded in a retributive reading of Thomas Aquinas, which considers the death penalty to be the domestic parallel to just war, the article argues that the prudential and charitable concerns which underpin the defence limitation for war between states do not apply to war between states and individuals in the same way. Importantly, however, for retributive targeted killings to be morally justifiable, such uses of force must follow a right intention. In consequence, while targeted killings as retribution are justifiable in principle, only rarely do real-world circumstances make such uses of force morally justifiable in practice.