Obeying orders : atrocity, military discipline, and the law of war / Mark J. Osiel.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-390) and index.

Obedience to Superior Orders -- Virtues and Vices of Military Obedience -- The Law of Military Obedience -- The Uncertain Scope of "Manifest" Illegality -- Problems with Prevailing Law -- Sparse and Unsettled Rules -- The Weightlessness of Moral Gravity -- Irregularity amidst Procedural Formality -- Atrocities "Vanish" by Verbal Artistry -- Views of Atrocity in Legal Theory: Positivist, Naturalist and Postmodernist -- Individual Responsibility for Systemic Horrors? -- Averting Atrocity -- Roots of Atrocity and Law's Response -- Legal Norms and Social Practices in Military Life -- Cold Hearts and the Heat of Battle: Atrocity from Above or from Below? -- Permutations on Perversity: Atrocity by Connivance and Brutalization -- Social Bases of Military Obedience -- Why Do Men Fight? -- Morale and Morality: An Uneasy Relationship -- Freedom and Constraint in Military Life and Law -- Rules vs. Standards in Military Law -- Martial Courage as Moral Judgment -- Promoting Practical Judgment -- What Soldiers Know -- Misreading Orders Morally -- Disobedience as Creative "Compliance" -- Living with Lawyers -- Applying Applied Ethics, or Where the Rubber Hits the Road.