War

Abstract

Less than a year after he had resigned as Lincoln’s Attorney General, Edward Bates wrote in his Diary: “The Laws and usages of war — What are they ? Who knows them ? Are they written in any book? Are they prescribed by any acknowledged authority? There is no such thing as the Laws of War War is the very reverse of Law.... ” ¹ As Attorney General, however, Bates did not dismiss the laws of war so completely. On the contrary, he and other occupants of the office of chief legal adviser have frequently sought to apply rules of law to various situations that war creates. And their opinions in this respect have covered a wide range of subjects, from the existence of war and the conduct of hostilities to the effect of war on private rights.