Presidential Accountability
in Wartime

Without flinching, this book addresses a controversial issue involving human rights and the American presidency. What happens to a U.S. president who violates the laws of war and, as difficult as it may be to acknowledge, commits war crimes? Nothing–if the early years of the war against terrorism provide any indication.

The presidency has long tested the capacity of the system of checks and balances to constrain executive power, especially in times of war. While scholars investigating this subject have focused on presidents starting military conflicts abroad without congressional authorization or infringing on civil liberties at home in the name of national security, Presidential Accountability in Wartime shifts the discussion to the conduct of hostilities during the course of armed conflict. Using the mistreatment of war-on-terror detainees under President George W. Bush as a case study, the book argues that holding U.S. presidents personally responsible for violating the laws of war is an obligatory but impossible task in the American constitutional system. In laying out this argument, this book enters the long-running debate over the presidency by integrating international humanitarian law into a constitutional analysis of the repercussions of presidential war powers for human rights around the world. Visit University of Michigan Press.

“I found that I kept wanting to turn the pages. Streichler manifests excellent scholarship and, just as importantly, a very accessible writing style.”
— Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law, author of the award-winning Constitutional Faith

“President Bush unlawfully endorsed the use of torture after 9/11 despite categorical prohibitions in both U.S. and international law. Stuart Streichler’s well documented yet eminently readable new book recounts how Bush endeavored to work around the law while critically examining the larger issues of presidential wartime authority and the challenges of holding top officials accountable for law of war violations. A must read for anyone concerned about Executive war powers and compliance with the rule of law.”
— David Glazier, Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University

“Streichler does an admirable job of bringing together thousands of pieces of information into a coherent, lucid story. Presidential Accountability in Wartime is a page turner.”
— David Luban, Georgetown University Law Center, author of the award-winning Torture, Power, and Law