Military justice challenges in North America

Murray Brewster, senior defense writer for CBC News, writes here about the challenges currently facing the Canadian and U.S. military justice systems. Excerpt:

The decision to court-martial a high-ranking American officer "would be purely political and up to the civilian administration."

That doesn't mean the American armed forces are immune to the reckoning taking place over sexual misconduct in the military. But there's an added wrinkle in the American context: the remarkable power commanding officers there can wield over the court martial process itself.

Commanding officers in the U.S. can, in some cases, overturn court martial verdicts. The ability is a little-used prerogative of command — one that many say is outdated.

There was an uproar in 2013 when a U.S. Air Force lieutenant-general used the power to upend the sexual assault prosecution of a subordinate.

The U.S. Congress is seriously contemplating removing, or severely limiting, the authority of commanders under the uniform justice code — and instead leaving such cases entirely in the hands of military lawyers.

Many here in Canada have called for a reform of the military justice system that would take it out from under military authority.

Both U.S. lawmakers and the American military as an institution will be watching what happens in Canada very carefully, [National Institute of Military Justice President Philip D.] Cave said.