Slaughterhouse-Six: Updating the Law of War

Abstract

The law of war is characterized by a temporal and normative see-saw. It is all new and old, tentative and foundational, anti-war and pro-defense, non-violent and highly coercive; the law has become, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, “a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization.” This essay seeks to juxtapose Vonnegut's farcical account of the Second World War and his message of human contradiction with the contemporary law governing the use of armed force as it has played out in Iraq and the Middle East. The message that comes out of this pairing is that international legal doctrines are, like Vonnegut's characters, free ranging creatures that are for the most part unstuck in time, place, and rationality.