Witt on Lincoln's Code

David Schraub, a student at the University of Chicago Law School, blogs on the presentation by John Witt, Columbia Law School/Yale Law School, in Chicago's American Legal History Workshop on April 23. Witt presented the paper "Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War and the Dilemma of American History." Mr. Schraub commences:

There is a paradox, Columbia Professor John Witt argues, lying inside America's contribution to modern warfare. On the one hand, the United States has been the leading force in creating and promulgating the modern laws of war. And on the other hand, the United States has been a pioneer in the use of ever-more destructive methods and materials of warfare.

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