What is the relationship between norms and the realm of international affairs? Can it ever be morally defensible to engage in armed struggle? If so, what rules and parameters should guide the use of armed force? How are those rules grounded, and how can we critique and change them so that they contribute to peaceful relations and further the cause of justice? And how can we use ethics and law to build trustful, stable and peaceful relations in a multicultural world? These and similar overarching questions form the foundations of the Law and Ethics and (LE) Research Group at PRIO.
The work of LE is centered around three overarching themes, each encompassing a number of related research areas. (Please note that the categories below do not necessarily all represent a theme or area within which research is currently being done.)
1. The rules of war and peace:
Attempts to regulate and restrain war have found various formulations within different religious and philosophical traditions. PRIO has for several years conducted research and facilitated publications exploring such traditions, with the aim of understanding historical sources and traditions better, and in order to see how angles and terminology from historical traditions can be utilized today. Below are the headings describing our basic research interests:
- Just war and the pursuit of peace
- Transitional justice
- Virtues or rules?
- The relevance of normative texts – philosophical and religious
- Normative foundations of the law of armed conflict
2. Emerging military technologies:
New military technologies have traditionally been met with some skepticism from ethicists and many lawyers. At the same time, new technology is often a driver of moral, legal and social change. What are the legal and ethical questions that arise with respect to emerging military technologies, and how do these change the nature of war and the roles of combatants and civilians? Our work focuses on three lines of research:
- Cyberwar
- Unmanned vehicles and autonomous weapons
- Human enhancement and nanotechnology
3. Institutional and moral challenges in the current world order:
Most armed conflicts in the world today are local, civil wars; yet, these pose great challenges to the international system, especially as the international community, through the UN and regional organizations, strives to restrain such conflicts. Also, conflicts today are sometimes fuelled and often influenced by perceptions of identity, including ethnic and religious identities. Together, this world order – or lack thereof – provokes a number of ethical and legal questions about the international system, which we group under the following headings:
- Responsibility to Protect (“R2P”)
- Education and moral consciousness in peacekeeping
- Institutional frameworks and governance
- The local and the global – how can we learn from one and apply to the other?
- Identities and perceptions of the other
Methodologies and academic fields:
LE encompasses the academic fields of law, moral philosophy, political theory, religious studies, theology, history and sociology. Although quantitative approaches will oftentimes be utilized or relied upon, the researchers within this research group mainly employ qualitative, hermeneutic approaches, both historical and sociological. LE includes both normative and descriptive projects.