[A.J.Armitage]

I disagree with his requirement that the war be declared by a sovereign, since I disagree with having a sovereign in any sense that would be recognized by Europeans of that era(or even now). This isn't anarchism, since our whole system is based on separation of powers, federalism, ect. The dreaded imperium in imperio.

As John Locke says, "The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves." You can't adhere to the proper authority requirement without rejecting the whole theory of authority behind the American revolution. That theory happens to be right. Before there was any government around to do this in an organized fashion, God said, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Therefore, there is a duty to shed the blood of the guilty. It must inhere in the person or institution that can best carry it out, since it doesn't specify who is to do it, but says it shall be done. If you're determined to do something, you use the best means you have. Government is merely the delegation of the execution of this duty, to be a terror to doers of evil work.

The important this is a just cause. The other things are nice, but if the cause is just, the war is.

[annalex]

About the need for a sovereign, I believe that what Aquinas says amounts to a proper delegation of warmaking power to the government. What makes the delegation proper varies from epoque to epoque; today we insist on a democratically elected leadership with separation of powers, but in the Middle Ages a dynastic claim of sovereignty was probably the proper method. Aquinas explains what it gives us:

- proper separation between private grievances that may be adjudicated and national causes that cannot;
- unified military strategy through single leadership;
- protection of those unable to bear arms themselves.

Note that a war waged by a leader who doesn't represent a nation (a warlord) cannot, obviously, be just, and a leaderless guerilla war cannot be just because it exposes non-combatants with which the guerilla intermingle, to retaliatory violence.