Two Reviews of John Fabian Witt, Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History

The Lawfare Book Review is pleased to announce that this weekend, we are publishing not one but two reviews of John Fabian Witt, Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History (Free Press 2012; the Amazon link is to the paperback edition just out now).  The first is by Amy Sennett, already familiar to Lawfare readers from her earlier reviews for us; she is currently an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington DC and will start a clerkship in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in September.  The second is by Stephen C. Neff; he is professor at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, and a leading historian of the laws of war. Professor Neff is author, among other works, of War and the Law of Nations (Cambridge UP 2005) and The Rights and Duties of Neutrals (Manchester UP 2000), as well as Justice in Blue and Gray: A Legal History of the Civil War (Harvard UP 2010), reviewed here at Lawfare by Alan G. Kaufman. The two reviews are complementary and for this reason we have decided to place them back-to-back.  Amy Sennett offers a close textual read of Lincoln's Code, with particular focus on the question of justice and slavery in the framing of the laws of war.  Stephen Neff brings his authoritative knowledge as a historian of the laws of war and places Witt's account in a larger historical  framework of war and law; he offers particular attention to the problems of unconventional warfare and the difficulties it posed for law.  Our thanks to our two reviewers for giving us such an intellectually rich discussion of John Witt's outstanding book.