Where Ethics and Legality Collide

This article has been written as a submission to the Canadian Military Journal. Opinions herein are meant to stimulate intellectual debate in an academic environment, and are those of the author alone.

Introduction

Legalism (obeying orders and/or the Law) is sometimes of poor counsel in matters of ethical conduct. It does not follow that infractions against regulations or against the Law should be ignored. There should be, in the military profession, a formal mechanism to examine cases where an ethical dilemma forces a choice between the moral and the legalist courses of action. Authorities, both Command and Legal, should recognize ‘ethical imperative’ exceptions in the same manner as the criminal code recognizes ‘self-defence’ or ‘defence of necessity’ exceptions in cases that would otherwise involve criminal or Code of Service Discipline liability.