#MeToo, unlawful command influence, and disposition authority

Col (Ret) Don Christensen

This just in from Task & Purpose senior editor Jared Keller:

[I]n order to fully address sexual assault in the armed forces, the DoD will have to tackle its biggest institutional challenge yet: reforming the concept of unlawful command influence [UCI] detailed in Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The UCI concept, intended to prevent military leaders from interfering in court-martial proceedings, was shaped as a due-process protection in 1950, when the UCMJ replaced the Revolutionary War-era Articles of War and Articles for the Government of the Navy. But critics say it has since evolved into a double-edged sword that gives control of judicial proceedings to unit commanders, who may end up derailing justice for their own reasons.

“The fact that commanders are in control of the process hampers leaders from being able to address the appropriateness about sexual assault,” Don Christensen, a retired Air Force chief prosecutor and president of advocacy organization Protect Our Defenders, told Task & Purpose. “In an independent system, commanders can actually lead as opposed to staying silent, but the current military leadership has refused to be self-reflective about the process. [They] push the virtues of the command-and-control system without ever thinking about the problems it causes.”