BOOK: Craig FORCESE, Destroying the Caroline - The Frontier Raid That Reshaped the Right to War (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2018). ISBN 978-1-55221-478-7, $ 36.95

(Source: Irwin Law)

Irwin Law has just published a book dealing with the 19th century Caroline Incident and its influence on the ius ad bellum

ABOUT

In the middle of night on 29 December 1837, Canadian militia commanded by a Royal Navy officer crossed the Niagara River to the United States and sank the Caroline, a steamboat being used by insurgents tied to the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. That incident, and the diplomatic understanding that settled it, have become shorthand in international law for the “inherent right to self-defence” exercised by states in far-off places and in different sorts of war. The Caroline is remembered today when drones kill terrorists and state leaders contemplate responses to threatening adversaries through military action.

But it is remembered by chance and not design, and often imperfectly.

This book tells the story of the Caroline affair and the colourful characters who populated it. Along the way, it highlights how the Caroline and claims of self-defence have been used — and misused — in response to modern challenges in international relations. It is the history of how a forgotten conflict on an unruly frontier has redefined the right to war.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part I: The Destruction of the Caroline
Chapter 2: The Insurgency
Chapter 3: The Invasion
Chapter 4: The Canadian Militia
Chapter 5: The Caroline
Chapter 6: The Raid
Chapter 7: Aftermath

Part II: Debating the Caroline
Chapter 8: Grievance
Chapter 9: Claim
Chapter 10: Impasse
Chapter 11: Revival
Chapter 12: Renewal
Chapter 13: Debate
Chapter 14: Resolution

Part III: The Merits of the Caroline
Chapter 15: The Law of the Day
Chapter 16: The Idea of War
Chapter 17: Imperfect Wars
Chapter 18: Self-Preservation at Copenhagen
Chapter 19: Neutrality and Its Limits
Chapter 20: Self-Defence and the First Seminole War, 1817–1818
Chapter 21: The Merits of the Case

Part IV: The Idea of the Caroline
Chapter 22: Freedom to War
Chapter 23: Banning War
Chapter 24: Collapse
Chapter 25: Banning Force
Chapter 26: Remembering the Caroline 

Part V: A Very Modern Steamboat
Chapter 27: Trigger
Chapter 28: Imminence
Chapter 29: Necessity and Proportionality
Chapter 30: Unwilling or Unable
Chapter 31: The Caroline’s Legacy

Epilogue The Protagonists’ Fate
Appendix: Chain of Citations and Misunderstandings about the Caroline's Core Facts
List of Illustrations
Notes
Index 

For more information, see the publisher’s website

(Source: International Law Reporter)