"In the Civil War, the United States and the Confederate States of America engaged in combat to defend distinct legal regimes and the social order they embodied and protected. Depending on which side has an argument that one accepted, the Constitution either demanded the Union's continuance or allowed for its dissolution. After the war began, rival legal concepts of insurrection (a civil war within a nation) and belligerency (war between sovereign...

"The Drone Memos collects for the first time the legal and policy documents underlying the U.S. government's deeply controversial practice of "targeted killing"--the extrajudicial killing of suspected terrorists and militants, typically using remotely piloted aircraft or "drones." The documents--including the Presidential Policy Guidance that provides the framework for drone strikes today, Justice Department white papers addressing the assassination...