‘Arm Bearers’ or ‘Warriors’? An Existential Encounter between Combatant Subjectivity and the Law of War

Ka Lok Yip (Hamad Bin Khalifa University)

Rooted in the enigma of human existence, existentialism flourished amid widespread destruction and disillusionment in Europe during and after the Second World War. 80 years on, what does existential philosophy have to offer us today in our efforts to address by law the perennial phenomenon that puts human face to face with the absurdity of their existence, war? If Jean-Paul Sartre was right in proclaiming that human beings are condemned to be free – how then can we expect human individuals to abide by externally imposed law in warfare as if they are passive, arm-bearing objects? Yet if we affirm individuals’ authenticity as championed by Martin Heidegger, how then can the law modulate individuals’ conduct in war to curb the excesses of those who authentically assume the identity of a raging warrior? Drawing together existential insights and socio-legal studies on the compliance with the law of war, this talk takes a deep dive into the psyches of the human individuals engaging in warfare in order to derive practical lessons for the law of war.