Military justice: historical perspectives and contemporary developments

Military justice is a fundamental component of armed forces, ensuring discipline, liability, and compliance with national laws and international law. This discipline, which encompasses criminal law, human rights, international humanitarian law, and legal history, has grown in importance in the 21st century due to the changing forms of warfare, technological advances, and new security challenges.

This volume, the third in the RIDP Libri’s special series dedicated to military justice, continues the series’ tradition of examining military justice from both historical and contemporary perspectives, to understand its past evolutions, current functioning and future developments.

In the first section, the historical contributions trace the evolution of military justice from the 17th century to the post-Second World War period. They analyse the emergence of courts-martial in Europe and North America in the context of the state’s formation, the professionalisation of armies, and of the birth of modern administration. Several chapters examine the prosecution of prisoners of war and the punishment of war crimes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The two world wars are the focus of particular attention. One study examines a controversial field court-martial and an execution that took place during the First World War in South Africa, highlighting the complexity of the country’s newly established military legal system. Other contributions focus on the Second World War, examining how military justice was used to maintain discipline, prosecute collaborators and traitors, and support post-war institutional reconstruction. These studies reveal the complex relationship between legality, politics and military necessity.

The second section, devoted to contemporary law, addresses the issue of the judicial independence of military courts and judges, comparing different national approaches and highlighting the constant tension between the rule of law and military discipline. It also examines the technical difficulties faced by certain states in reforming their military justice systems. Other contributions analyse sexual violence, psychological trauma suffered during military service, gender-based discrimination, and professional misconduct relating to public procurement. Finally, this volume explores new challenges, including the legal implications of drone warfare, the growing importance of digital evidence in war crimes prosecutions, and debates surrounding the future of military courts in changing geopolitical contexts.

Overall, the contributions demonstrate that military justice remains a unique, essential and constantly evolving discipline.

Gwenaël Guyon is Associate Professor in Legal History and Comparative Law at Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy, seconded from the University Paris Cité, and President of the International Military Justice Forum.

Evert Kleynhans is Associate Professor in the Department of Military History at the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University, and Vice President of the International Military Justice Forum.

Anna La Grange recently completed her PhD in History at the University of Potsdam. She is co-director of the Military History Consortium and serves on the Young Researchers Board for the International Military Justice Forum.

Sonja Els is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law of STADIO Higher Education and a research fellow of the Department of Mercantile & Public Law at the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University.

Mariella Terzoli is currently Postdoctoral Researcher at Sciences Po, Centre d’Histoire (CHSP), within the ERC Advanced Grant ‘The Global War on Civilians, 1905-1945’.