Punishing Non-Conscientious Disobedience: Is the Military a Rogue Employer?

Abstract

A construction worker may have agreed to a risky job, but this does not oblige him to follow orders where it is foreseen that the harm risked will materialize. If the worker is directed by his site foreman to climb an unstable scaffold in a cyclone, he is within his rights to refuse, morally and legally, on the grounds that death or serious injury is the reasonably foreseen outcome of obedience. If it is not permissible for civilian employers to enforce compliance with such “imminently dangerous” directives, then why is it permissible for the military? The paper explores various possible answers to this question.