The Notion of Just War: Some Contemporary Approaches

Abstract

This paper goes through the notion of Just War, revising the first approaches made from Christian Theology, by authors like Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas and Francisco de Vitoria, and then remarking the process of secularization of this notion and its influence in the International Law. Finally, it will go through the more contemporaneous approaches to Just War notion by North American philosopher Michael Walzer, who, from the Normative Politics Philosophy, has retaken the ancient medieval ideas to evaluate morality in the actual war.