| Sumario: | In determining the right to life under international human rights law (IHRL) during the conduct of hostilities, the traditional approach defers to the relevant rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) as 'lex specialis', while the 'normative' approach adopts an open-ended 'contextual application' of 'systemic integration'. Neither approach provides a theoretical account that speaks to the heart of the matter – the just assignment of legal responsibility for the deprivation of life in war-fighting, where 'responsibility' implies the correct location of a 'cause' that is answerable, or 'able' to provide a 'response', for such deprivation. The invocation of causality in the social world in turn requires an account of social ontology, the study of what exists in society to cause anything at all. This article outlines a social ontological approach that reconnects the relevant norms under IHL and IHRL with different types of causes of deprivation of life in war-fighting in order to demystify the right to life in hostilities theoretically. It then demonstrates the proper use of systemic integration together with the legally prescribed 'context' and analyses concrete scenarios of deprivation of life in war-fighting in order to demystify the right to life in hostilities methodologically and practically.
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