Issues of Justice and Peace
This domain tests theories of justice, war and peace, human rights and conflict resolution, with application to real and hypothetical cases.
Core concepts
- Justice: distributive (fair share), retributive (punishment), restorative (repair); Rawls's veil of ignorance; structural violence (Galtung).
- Just war: Augustine and Aquinas; jus ad bellum (legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, proportionality, last resort, reasonable success); jus in bello (discrimination, proportionality); jus post bellum.
- Pacifism: absolute and contingent; realism as a rival approach; conscientious objection.
- Catholic social teaching: Pacem in Terris (1963), Gaudium et Spes (1965), solidarity, common good, option for the poor; liberation theology.
- Human rights: UDHR (1948); civil, political, social and economic rights; tensions over universality.
Worked example
Apply just war criteria to a hypothetical humanitarian intervention. Legitimate authority: UN mandate or recognised state? Just cause: mass atrocities. Right intention: protection, not regime change. Last resort: sanctions and diplomacy exhausted. Proportionality: likely civilian harm versus expected good. Reasonable success: achievable mandate. Evaluate: the criteria are cumulative, not a checklist; weak authority or vague intention undermines the case. Conclusion: conditional support if all criteria are met and post-war reconstruction is planned.
Traps
Listing criteria without applying them; conflating pacifism with passivity; ignoring non-violence; confusing conflict with violence; using 'peace' vaguely; ignoring structural injustice; treating human rights as merely legal.