With new developments in the news everyday about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s encroachment into Ukraine, the law of war is top of mind for law students and legal scholars across the world.
The Owen M. Kupfershmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project (HHRP) at Boston College Law School hosted Professor Mary Beth Basile Chopas on October 19 to discuss how the law of war has evolved from the Greco-Roman days to the present. Chopas is a legal scholar and will be teaching a class on the Law of War in the spring semester of 2023. She is also a 1993 graduate of Boston College Law School.
Chopas touched on the idea of government restraints in wartime, including codes of ethics established in Greco-Roman times. Roman Statesman Cicero famously believed in showing mercy to the conquered. Sacred places and monuments were immunized and civilian casualties minimized.
