LTC Dan Maurer has an excellent article, The Department of Defense's In Extremis Legal Challenges During Modern Warfare, in the Lieber Institute's Articles of War series. He identifies three principles and four imperatives, packing a lot into a brief essay ..read more

Six? Nine? It's up in the air in Pakistan's military courts case. Details here, from the Express Tribune ..read more

Gov. Laura Kelly has signed into law Senate Bill 292, significantly amending the Kansas Code of Military Justice. There is a useful explanatory memorandum here. Remarkably, the measure abolishes courts-martial; punishment powers are exercised by commanding offiers. Under § 121(b), decisions of the federal military appellate courts are not binding, but can be used for guidance ..read more

At 10:30 a.m. (US East Coast time) on Tuesday, April 30, Global Military Justice Reform will hold a zoom Town Hall on today's important decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. H.M. The King, 2024 SCC 15. Associate Editor Rory Fowler will kick off the conversation. Please join us, and encourage friends to do so as well. Information on joining can be found here. Link: https://yale.zoom.us/my/fidell?omn=98497668319 Meeting ID: 898 664 5482 ..read more

The Supreme Court of Pakistan's "military courts case" is back on hold, one of the judges having recused himself earlier this week. Here we go again. Details here ..read more

The Supreme Court of Canada has today dismissed the appeals in the judicial independence case of Edwards v. H.M. The King by a vote of 6-1. The decision can be found here. We'll have more on this, including a Town Hall ..read more

At 9:45 a.m., Friday, April 26, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada will hand down its decision in Edwards v. H.M. The King, No. 39820, and four other cases that raise the same or similar issues. From the court's summary: The appellants are members of the Canadian Armed Forces who had various charges laid against them. They each filed a preliminary application in the Court Martial seeking a stay of proceedings because of an alleged infringement of their constitutional right to be tried by an independent and impartial tribunal guaranteed by s. 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights ..read more

Moscow Times reports: A Russian court has sentenced Meta spokesman Andy Stone to six years in prison in absentia on “terrorism” charges linked to the company’s wartime content moderation policy, the independent Mediazona news website reported Monday. Stone was charged with the “promotion,” “public calls for” and “justification” of terrorism after his March 2022 announcement that the Facebook and Instagram parent company would temporarily lift its ban on violent speech for comments against the “Russian invaders” of Ukraine.  Moscow’s Second Western Military Garrison Court on Monday found ..read more

This seems a real question in a current Spanish case. The attorney in question, Luis Romero Santos, writes in this op-ed: Perhaps Your Honor receives pressure from his bosses and from the defense's military lawyers, since we must not forget the hierarchical dependence of military judges, both functional and organic. They must follow orders and their career advancements may be in jeopardy. That is why we should ask ourselves if it is not time to integrate military jurisdiction into ordinary jurisdiction, as has happened some time ago in Germany, France, Holland and Portugal. Our Constitution ..read more

The Alabama Senate has passed a bill amending the state's Code of Military Justice. Among other things, the bill amends the provision on subject matter jurisdiction.  Under the new version, offenses by a member in any duty status will be rebuttably presumed to have the requisite service nexus. The measure goes to the State House of Representatives ..read more