Here is an interesting discussion about Francis Lieber, the German immigrant law professor who developed the laws of war during the Civil War and Reconstruction. From the podcast’s description:
Jack Goldsmith sat down with John Fabian Witt, professor of law at Yale Law School, to talk about Witt’s new book, “To Save the Country: A Lost Treatise on Martial Law,” which features a previously undiscovered manuscript written by Francis Lieber, a legal adviser to Lincoln’s White House and key thinker in the development of American laws of war. Witt explained Lieber’s impact on the development of American war-time law and talked about what the manuscript has to say about Lieber’s views of martial law and his unorthodox understanding of military necessity. The two also discussed the famous Reconstruction-era military commissions precedent Ex parte Milligan, Lieber’s anxieties about congressional power, and more.
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