Extrajudicial killing.

[peter]

Wikipedia; Extrajudicial killing.

An extra judicial killing is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature unlawfull since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur. Extrajudicial killings often target leading political, trade-union, dissident,
religious and social figures and may be carried out by the state government or other state authorities like the armed forces or police.

Well that seems clear enough; by any legal measure it is a contravention for the state to go round knocking off people [either of it's own or other nationalities] of it's own volition. But how does this stack up in the world of 'realpolitic' - in cases where there is never going to be a 'due process' that is going to give the [perhaps much needed] go-ahead for an individual to be liquidated. Are there cases where the morality of the situation would fly in the face of the legality; where it would be morally wrong not to circumvent the law and do what 'has to be done'. Or to allow for that would you be inserting the thin end of a wedge that would ultimately be abused and twisted untill it became a carte blanche for doing away with anyone who had become a thorn in the states side?

[Cail]

The Obama administration enddorses this policy and has carried it out several times.

I'm not a fan.

[Morning]

Judicial killing makes no sense, for no judicial system is perfect, making reparation for a mistake impossible.

Therefore, extra-judicial killing is the only kind that makes sense.

[SerScot]

Morning,

So, you endorse "extra-judicial" killing where there is no due process and the end result is just as final and uncorrectable as in a Judicial killing?

Or, do you reject both judicial and extra-judicial killing?

[Morning]

Morning,

So, you endorse "extra-judicial" killing where there is no due process and the end result is just as final and uncorrectable as in a Judicial killing?

Or, do you reject both judicial and extra-judicial killing?

I am stating the obvious and endorsing neither judicial nor extra-judicial killing. The appendage of the term "judicial" to either clause makes this a screaming bog for straw men and does not advance the discussion, which should be focused on whether individual enforcers of the authority (cops, fighter pilots, drone fliers, war room analysts, and so forth) should a) have the right to make autonomous calls up to a certain degree of responsibility (mutatis mutandis for each case of agent) or b) be crucified whatever they do, either because they let a murderer go away, because they killed the wrong guy in a difficult (terrorist base, e.g.) setting, or even for killing the right guy.

I certainly do not reject killing the enemies of Reason, like for example the obscurantist fanatical cave-dwellers from the desert who now run rampant in the ME.

[Avatar]

"Reason" is subjective.

--A

[peter]

Thus speaks the voice of reason.

Thats actually a very significant point that many of us who would argue tooth and nail against the capital punishment within our own judicial system would not be mearly as 'anti' in respect of an extra-judicial killing of the 'Osama' type that we witnessed a few years back. There are clear differences of course - the Osama type was more 'preventative' in intent than 'punitive' [wasn't it?] and this would surely be the criteria on which most people would consider such a killing justifiable.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Soldiers in an active hot zone killing other people? This is the normal conduct and result of war or other military activity and doesn't count.

Sending in a drone to take out a target because they are involved with some group or they are suspected of being involved in some activity which may lead to the deaths of innocent civilians is wrong and should be stopped immediately. You cannot kill someone because of something they are planning or something they might do--they haven't actually done anything yet! This, of course, was one of the central themes in Winter Soldier.

[Obi-Wan Nihilo]

Law is just something a conqueror bandies about within its own dominion. There's nothing inherent about any of it.