In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would "have no lawful right" to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a proclamation intended to free all slaves throughout the Confederate states. When critics challenged the constitutional soundness of the act, Lincoln pointed to the international laws and usages of war as the legal basis for his Proclamation, asserting that the Constitution invested the president "with the law of war in time of war." As the Civil War intensified, the Lincoln administration slowly...
In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would "have no lawful right" to interfere with the institution of sla...
In light of recent controversies and legal actions related to America's treatment of enemy prisoners in the Middle East and Guant?namo Bay, the regulation of government during wartime has become a volatile issue on the global scene. By today's standards, Lincoln's adherence to the laws of war could be considered questionable, and his critics, past and present, have not hesitated to charge that he was a war criminal. In Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War, Burrus M. Carnahan conducts an extensive analysis of Lincoln's leadership throughout the Civil War as he struggled to...
In light of recent controversies and legal actions related to America's treatment of enemy prisoners in the Middle East and Guant?namo Bay, the regula...
