Resumen de Ius ad bellum and ius in bello in Thomas More’s Utopia. Some interpretative challenges of a Twenty-first century reading

Miguel Martínez López

• While themes such as theabolitionof private property, full employment, universal education,and religious freedom(among others) have received a lot of attention by critics,closereading of the theme of war in More’s Utopiahas been far less common.Thepurpose of this articleis to examine how Thomas More anticipated contemporaryapproaches to the doctrineof just war(ius ad bellum, the justice of going to war and iusin bello, the rules of fighting in war) in his On The Best State of a Commonwealthandonthe New Island of Utopia(1518).The extent to which More’s approachto the theme of war is especiallyrelevant for our twenty-first-centurydebate onthis complex subjectis explored,insofar as he navigatesthe end of an age that cherished chivalry–a ius in belloin itself-and the beginningof a realist, Machiavelliantwist that presentedapragmatic,result-oriented approach to war where ends, not means, constitutedthe pivotal rationale.Upon close scrutiny, the Utopian militarypractices, including preemptive and preventive wars,not only arecompatible with just war requirements but alsoanticipate our mainstreamtwenty-first-centurytheories andprocedures inarmed operations.