Abstract

The essay discusses the concept of inequality in the field of international politics and the theories of war, looking particularly at Emer de Vattel's thought. The Author argues that the doctrine of the war en form does not imply only the equal status of belligerents as justi hostes, but also a re-formulation of the inegalitarian conception of the enemy proposed by the doctrines of just war. Pointing out the persistence of a jusnaturalistic conceptual foundation, the Author suggests that, in Vattel's work, the concept of justus hostis is formulated on the base of a presumed ontological inequality of the belligerents.