Guerre juste et droit de la guerre dans l’Encyclopédie

Abstract

In the vast reform program sketched by the chevalier de Jaucourt in the Encyclopédie for the modernization of justice, one point is particularly close to his heart: humanizing the rules of war. Drawing from the philosophies of Grotius and Montesquieu, his articles devoted to the question of a just war (CONQUEST, DAMAGE, DESERTER, ENEMY, PRISONNER OF WAR, RETALIATION, WAR, etc.) argue for the subordination of the political to moral reason and work towards the advent of international humanitarian law.