War crimes and questions on justice in asymmetric warfare: the case of Iraq

The Greek word for ‘right’, since Aristotle, has been ‘δικαιωμα’, a word that has ‘δικαιο’ as its root. ‘Δικαιο’ means justice; the understanding of rights has since then been connected to a sense of fairness, of what someone justly deserves. Rights are entitlements that dominate understandings of what actions are morally permissible, which laws are just and what constitutes a crime.