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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2018
I am deeply grateful to the American Society of International Law—especially to its president, Lucinda Low—and to the International Legal Studies Program at American University Washington College of Law—in particular, to the Dean of the College, Camille Nelson, and to its program director, David Hunter—for their generous invitation to deliver the nineteenth Annual Grotius Lecture. Grateful, but more than a little intimidated. Nobel laureates and heads of state, eminent judges and leading diplomats have given this distinguished lecture, but never, I think, a humble historian. As Isaac Newton might have said were he in my shoes, “[i]f I can see far, it is because I stand on the shoulders of these giants.”
This lecture will also be published in the American University International Law Review, forthcoming 2017.
The lecture began at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 12, 2017, and was given by David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University; the discussant was Mary Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law.*
1 Letter from Sir Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke (Feb. 5, 1675) (on file with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) (“[I]f I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”).
2 2 Antoine Henri Jomini, Précis de l'Art de la Guerre, ou Nouveau Traité Analytique des Principales Combinaisons de la Stratégie, de la Grande Tactique et de la Politique Militaire 31 (1840) (“Vouloir donner des maximes pour ces sortes de guerres serait absurd.”).
3 Gustave Moynier, Étude Sur la Convention de Genève pour l'Amélioration du Sort des Militaires Blessés dans les Armées en Campagne [Study of the Geneva Convention for the Improvement of the Armed Forces] 304 (1870) (“Nous ne parlons pas, cela va sans dire, des guerres civiles; les lois internationales ne leur sont pas applicables.”).
4 Michel Foucault, Chronologie, in 1 Dits et Écrits 1954–1988 13, 42 (1994) (“[L]a plus décriée des guerres: ni Hobbes, ni Clausewitz, ni lutte des classes, la guerre civile.”).
5 Kennedy, David, Primitive Legal Scholarship, 27 Harv. Int'l L.J. 1, 3–5 (1987)Google Scholar.
6 See David Armitage, Civil Wars: A History in Ideas (2017), on which this lecture draws heavily.
7 See generally Armitage, supra note 6.
8 But cf. Cheryl A. Wells, Civil War Time: Temporality and Identity in America 1861–1865 1–10 (2005) (considering the conception of “civil war time” as it applies to the American understanding of time during and after the U.S. Civil War).
9 See Mary L. Dudziak, War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences 3–9 (2012) [hereinafter Dudziak, War Time] (discussing the conception of war time and its consequences as temporary); see also Dudziak, Mary L., War and Peace in Time and Space, 13 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 381, 381–97 (2014)Google Scholar [hereinafter Dudziak, War and Peace] (analyzing the impacts of war time on legal thought); Dudziak, Mary L., Law, War, and the History of Time, 98 Calif. L. Rev. 1669, 1669–701 (2010)Google Scholar [hereinafter Dudziak, History of Time] (assessing the spatial components of war time in contemporary American life where American military action is largely carried out in other nations).
10 2 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan 192 (Noel Malcolm ed., 2012).
11 Dudziak, War Time, supra note 9, at 5.
12 See id. at 35–69, 100, 127–28 (explaining how World War II, the Cold War, and the Global War on Terror demonstrate a coexistence between, or possible merging of, war time and peacetime).
13 I take the term “forever war” from Dexter Filkins, The Forever War (2008) and Mark Danner, Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War (2016).
14 See David Armitage, Civil Wars, from Beginning … to End?, 120 Am. Hist. Rev. 1829, 1835–37 (2015)Google Scholar (examining the extensive and violent impact civil war has in shaping regions and continuing conflict for generations).
15 See Armitage, supra note 6, at 5 (“Since 1989, an average of twenty intrastate wars have been in progress at any moment—about ten times the annual average globally between 1816 and 1989.”).
16 Ann Hironaka, Neverending Wars: The International Community, Weak States, and the Perpetuation of Civil War 4 (2005).
17 Hironaka, supra note 16, at 2; see U.S. Dep't of Def., World War II, Defense Casualty Analysis System (last visited Oct. 1, 2017), at https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/casualties_ww2.xhtml.
18 See Hironaka, supra note 16, at 155; see also Stergios Skaperdas et al., The Costs of Violence 10 (World Bank 2009); World Bank, World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development 5 (2011), at https://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDRS/Resources/WDR2011_Full_Text.pdf.
19 Allansson, Marie, Melander, Erik & Themnér, Lotta, Organized Violence, 1989–2016, 54 J. Peace Res. 574, 575–76 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Id. at 576; see also, Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, Transnational Dimensions of Civil War, 44 J. Peace Res. 293, 293–309 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jeffery T. Checkel, Transnational Dynamics of Civil War (2013).
21 See Collier, Paul, Hoeffler, Anke & Söderbom, Måns, On the Duration of Civil War, 41 J. Peace Res. 253, 253 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 See, e.g., Paul Collier, Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places 139 (2009) (quoted); see Collier, Hoeffler & Söderbom, supra note 21, at 257, 264; Fearon, James D., Why Do Some Civil Wars Last So Much Longer Than Others?, 41 J. Peace Res. 275, 276, 278–79 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Walter, Barbara F., Does Conflict Beget Conflict? Explaining Recurring Civil War, 41 J. Peace Res. 371, 371 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hironaka, supra note 16, at 150; World Bank, supra note 18, at 57.
23 Eliot, T. S., Annual Lecture on a Master Mind: Milton, 33 Proc. Brit. Acad. 61, 63 (1947)Google Scholar.
24 Gregorio Marañon Moya, El general De Gaulle, en Toledo, El País (Aug. 8, 1981), at https://elpais.com/diario/1981/08/08/opinion/366069615_850215.html (translating “Todas las guerras son malas, porque simbolizan el fracaso de toda política. Pero las guerras civiles, en las que en ambas trincheras hay hermanos, son imperdonables, porque la paz no nace cuando la guerra termina.”).
25 Julián Casanova et al., Presentación, in Morir, matar, sobrevir: La violencia en la dictadura de Franco [Die, Kill, Survive: Violence in Franco's Dictatorship] ix, x (2004).
26 Lucan, Civil War 3 (Susan H. Braund trans., 1992); see also Carl Schmitt, Glossarium: Aufzeichnungen der Jahre 1947–1951 42 (1991) (translating “Im Bürgerkrieg gibt es keinen Triumph”). But see Carsten Hjort Lange, Triumphs in the Age of Civil War: The Late Republic and the Adaptability of Triumphal Tradition 1–2, 7, 27, 95, 123 (2016).
27 See 1 Tacitus, The Histories 222–23 (Clifford H. Moore trans., 1925) (illustrating the meaning of “temptamenta civilium bellorum”).
28 Lucan, supra note 26, at 27.
29 Horace, The Complete Odes and Epodes 56 (David West trans., 1997).
30 See Paul Seaward, Clarendon, Tacitism, and the Civil Wars of Europe, in The Uses of History in Early Modern England 285, 297–98 (Paulina Kewes ed., 2006) (illustrating examples such as the civil wars of the Low Countries).
31 Hugo Grotius, Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty 50 (Martine Julia van Ittersum ed., 2006) [hereinafter Grotius, Prize and Booty].
32 See Grotius, Prize and Booty, supra note 31, at 50 (claiming “just” wars consist of execution of a right while “unjust” wars consist of execution of an injury).
33 Id.
34 Id.
35 Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace 240 (Richard Tuck ed., 2005) [hereinafter Grotius, Rights of War].
36 Grotius, Rights of War, supra note 35, at 381, quoting Plutarch's Life of Brutus and Cicero's “Second Philippic.”
37 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, in The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings 42, 42–46 (Victor Gourevitch ed., 1997).
38 Walter Rech, Enemies of Mankind: Vattel's Theory of Collective Security 207–09, 212–19 (2013).
39 See David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History 40–41 (2007); Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina, L'eterno ritorno del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel (secc. XVIII– XIX): L'impatto sulla cultura giuridica in prospettiva globale (2017).
40 Emer de Vattel, The Law of Nations 469 (Béla Kapossy & Richard Whatmore eds., Thomas Nugent trans., 2008) (1758).
41 Id.
42 Id. at 642.
43 Id. at 644.
44 Id. at 644–45.
45 Id. at 500–08 (on declarations of war in interstate conflict).
46 Id. at 645.
47 Id.
48 Quincy Wright, The American Civil War (1861–65), in The International Law of Civil War 30, 42–43 (Richard A. Falk ed., 1971).
49 Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President, Proclamation of a Blockade (Apr. 19, 1861), in 4 Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 338, 338 (Roy P. Basler ed., 1953).
50 See Stephen C. Neff, Justice in Blue and Gray: A Legal History of the Civil War 32–34 (2010).
51 Prize Cases, 67 U.S. 635, 636–39 (1862) (discussing the four captured vessels and the district court's condemnation that the individuals on board were either unaware of the war or unaware of the blockade).
52 Prize Cases, 67 U.S. at 666–71 (considering the various factors that indicate when a war exists and declaring that “[t]he proclamation of blockade is itself official and conclusive evidence to the Court that a state of war existed”).
53 Id. at 666.
54 Id. at 666–69; Brian McGinty, Lincoln and the Court 138–39 (2008); Neff, supra note 50, at 25–26; Thomas H. Lee & Michael D. Ramsey, The Story of the Prize Cases: Executive Action and Judicial Review in Wartime, in Presidential Power Stories 53, 73–76 (Christopher H. Schroeder & Curtis A. Bradley eds., 2009).
55 Prize Cases, 67 U.S. at 666.
56 Id. at 667–73.
57 Anna Ella Carroll, The War Powers of the General Government 7 (1861).
58 Francis Lieber, Laws and Usages of War (1861–62), Lieber MSS, The John Hopkins University, Box 2, item 17.
59 Finkelman, Paul, Francis Lieber and the Modern Law of War, 80 U. Chi. L. Rev. 2071, 2093–95 (2013)Google Scholar; see John Fabian Witt, Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History 181–211 (2012).
60 U.S. War Dep't, Adjutant-General's Office, General Order No. 100, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States, in the Field Art. 150 (1863) [hereinafter Lieber Code].
61 Lieber Code, Art. 151.
62 U.S. Const. Art. I, §§ 8–9.
63 See Lincoln, supra note 49, at 425–63.
64 See Gregory Downs, After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War 213–36 (2015); see also Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War (2014).
65 Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War 4 (2016).
66 Id. at 5.
67 Akande, Dapo & Hill-Cawthorne, Lawrence, The Lieber Code and the Regulation of Civil War in International Law, 53 Colum. J. Transnat'l L. 638, 639–40 (2015)Google Scholar (asserting that states viewed civil war as solely an internal, domestic matter that was not to be considered in the instructions of the Lieber Code).
68 Armitage, supra note 6, at 201.
69 See II.B Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949 11–12 (1949); see also Sandesh Sivakumaran, The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict 62–65 (2012).
70 See Lindsay Moir, The Law of Internal Armed Conflict 89–132 (2002); see also Sivakumaran, supra note 69, at 54–58.
71 Armitage, supra note 6, at 205.
72 Anthony Cullen, The Concept of Non-International Armed Conflict in International Humanitarian Law 109–12 (2010); Eric David, Internal (Non-International) Armed Conflict, in The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict 353, 362 (Andrew Clapham & Paola Gaeta eds., 2014).
73 See David Armitage, Three Narratives of Civil War: Recurrence, Remembrance and Reform from Sulla to Syria, in Civil War and Narrative: Testimony, Historiography, Memoir (Karine Deslandes, Fabrice Mourlon & Bruno Tribout eds., 2017).
74 See Erica Chenoweth, The Syrian Conflict is Already a Civil War, Am. Prospect (Jan. 15, 2012), at http://prospect.org/article/syrian-conflict-already-civil-war; see also Dan Murphy, Why It's Time to Call Syria a Civil War, Christian Sci. Monitor (Jun. 5, 2012), available at http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0605/Why-it-s-time-to-call-Syria-a-civil-war.
75 Gill, Terry D., Classifying the Conflict in Syria, 92 Int'l L. Stud. 353, 374 (2016)Google Scholar; Syria in Civil War, Red Cross Says, BBC News: Middle East (July 15, 2012), at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18849362.
76 See Interview by International Committee of the Red Cross with Kathleen Lawand, Head, ICRC Unit on Law in Armed Conflict: Internal Conflicts or Other Situations of Violence—What Is the Difference for Victims? (Dec. 12, 2012), at http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/interview/2012/12-10-niac-non-international-armed-conflict.htm.
77 See Fazal, Tanisha M., The Demise of Peace Treaties in Interstate War, 67 Int'l Org. 695, 695–724 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818313000246; see also Fazal, Tanisha M., Why States No Longer Declare War, 21 Security Stud. 557, 557–93 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09636412.2012.734227.
78 See Dudziak, War Time, supra note 9, at 26–27.
79 Tanisha M. Fazal, Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict (2018).
80 Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth or the Long Parliament 251–52 (Paul Seaward ed., 2010).
81 Prize Cases, 67 U.S. at 666.
