"Will discipline survive?"

Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen S. Strickey of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Canada) has a new contribution to the professional literature: 'Anglo-American' Military Justice Systems and the Wave of Civilianization: Will Discipline Survive?, (2)4 Cambridge J. Int'l & Comp. L. 763 (2013). He counsels (799) that "those entrusted with the superintendence of the military justice systems in [Canada, Australia, the UK, and the U.S.] would be wise to pay heed to the effect of civilianization among their closest allies and to question whether such reform is in the best interests of discipline and fairness to the accused."

"[I]t is proposed that these four countries form an ad hoc Military Justice Committee to keep appraised of developments in their respective countries. While one academic has proposed a similar idea to include civilian judges and academics, this paper proposes a slightly modified recommendation with the Committee limited to uniformed military justice practitioners charged with advising their respective Judge Advocates General (or his/her equivalent) on strategic military justice policy. This would allow military justice experts to gain an in-depth view of reform from the policy-makers themselves and therefore benefit from the context in which the reforms are proposed." (798 (footnotes omitted).)