Open symposium: Honest Errors?
Combat Decision-Making 75 Years
After the Hostage Case

Welcome to an open symposium where military historians, international lawyers and moral philosophers will debate this and other related questions raised in a new Asser/Springer anthology entitled “Honest Errors? Combat Decision Making 75 Years After the Hostage Case

Should commanders be punished for civilian harm caused by errors in their judgment?

Invited speakers:

• Sven G. Holtsmark, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
• Sean Watts, West Point
• Valentin Jeutner, Lund University
• Pål Wrange, Stockholm University

About the book:

This book marks the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Hostage Case in which a US military tribunal in Nuremberg acquitted General Lothar Rendulic of devastating Northern Norway on account of his honest factual error. The volume critically reappraises the law and facts underlying his trial, the no second-guessing rule in customary international humanitarian law (IHL) that is named after the general himself, and the assessment of modern battlefield decisions.

Mer about the book on Springer Link

Nobuo Hayashi is affiliated to the Centre for International and Operational Law at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm, Sweden.

Carola Lingaas is affiliated to the Faculty of Social Studies at VID Specialized University in Oslo, Norway.