Witt: Lincoln's Laws of War

John Fabian Witt (Columbia Univ. - Law) has published in Slate Lincoln's Laws of War. (You might want to check out as well John's Ye Olde Gitmo from a couple of months ago, also in Slate.) Here's the first paragraph:

One of Abraham Lincoln's little-noted accomplishments has become his most unlikely legacy. He helped create the modern international rules that protect civilians, prevent torture, and limit the horrors of combat, the body of law known as the laws of war. Indeed, he was probably our most important law-of-war president, having crafted the very rules that George W. Bush and his Justice Department tried to destroy.