Abstract

This essay proposes that Kant′s unjust enemy has a central place within his conception of international law. The first part rejects the assumption that the unjust enemy is part of Kant′s law of war and primarily a domestic problem. Instead, it is argued that this figure is best understood as a spoiler of the building process of international law. Several forms of the unjust enemy are distinguished in order to show that the theorem has also positive functions within Kant′s theory. These positive features could be used within Kant′s evolutionary conception of international law to point to some internal deficiencies