Destroying the Caroline

The Frontier Raid That Reshaped the Right to War

By: Craig Forcese

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Paperback | 7 May 2018

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392 Pages

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22.8 x 15.2 x 2.5

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Winner, 2019 Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship, The American Society of International LawnnIn 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.nnBut it is remembered by chance and not design, and often imperfectly.nnThis 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.

Industry Reviews

"Destroying the Caroline is an important book for those State legal advisors, military lawyers, policy makers and academics who want to study how various factors can help resolve the legal, ethical, moral, and textual challenges facing them on today's omnipresent battlefield."

--Major Dimitri J. Facaros, "Book Review: Destroying the Caroline: The Frontier Raid That Reshaped the Right to War" (2021), 5 PKI Global Justice Journal 16
"As someone who has undertaken a major (although nowhere near this major) research project on the Caroline in the past - digging into original documents from the time and trying to make sense of the legal context that shaped and embedded elements of Webster's famous formula in the customary international law that we continue to apply and contest today - it was a real pleasure to read Destroying the Caroline. I thought, unjustifiably self-importantly, that I 'knew' the Caroline, more so even than most scholars in the field. Forcese's book makes it clear that I did not, or, at least, not well enough. My misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge about the incident were entertainingly revealed to me in the pages of this book. [ . . . ] Destroying the Caroline is now one of the leading works on the Caroline incident, and will be an invaluable resource for anyone engaging with it (or its legacy) going forward."--James A. Green, University of Reading, Reading, UK, Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (9/30/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"Overall, Destroying the Caroline is essential reading for jus ad bellum scholars. It broadens and deepens our understanding of what has become a central feature of our jus ad bellum discourse. It provides the foundation for critical reflection and debate on the curious and winding route through which the incident gained this status and on the utility of Webster's formula today. And it addresses many of the central challenges in the jus ad bellum today in a thoughtful and provocative way."--Tom Dannenbaum, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University "The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 113:4"

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