Arming Military Justice [Hardcover]

Jonathan Lurie (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pursuing Military Justice | Publication Date: June 25, 1992

Why must military justice be different from civilian justice? How different should it be? And to what extent should it be influenced or administered by civilian participants? These are the broad topics addressed by Jonathan Lurie's comprehensive history of the development of appellate review of military justice in the United States. Predating federal district courts by more than a decade, the courtsmartial established by the Continental Congress in 1776 were among the first tribunals authorized by the United States. Lurie tells the story of how Congress finally created a civilian appellate court, the Court of Military Appeals, to sit at the top of his military justice system. Why it chose to do so in 1950, with the enactment of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, rather than at an earlier date, is a central theme of his book. Drawing from original sources never before utilized in such a work, Lurie focuses on the political dynamics of the major reforms of military justice that followed World War I and World War II. Other background chapters, however, discuss several earlier episodes that demonstrate thension between civil and military justice. One involved the irascible Andrew Jackson and the legal problems resulting from his enforcement of martial law in New Orleans; a second, the court martial and execution at sea of three Navy crewmen, among whom was the son of the then Secretary of War! A companion volume will treat the legal history of the Court of Military Appeals from 1951 to approximately 1980.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (June 25, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691069441
• ISBN-13: 978-0691069449
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,157,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Definitive History of the UCMJ and its "Supreme Court.", October 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Arming Military Justice (Hardcover)

This is the first of Professor Lurie's 2 volume treatise on the history of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, formerly, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. Any attorney who has any issue pertaining to the evolution of military justice in the United States, who does not consult this book, has committed malpractice. Meticulously researched and thoroughly annotated, the author lucidly and cogently teaches the reader how both the UCMJ and the CMA came into being. More importantly for the practitioner, Prof. Lurie's work provides the "why." As he notes, "Never before had Congress created a civilian appellate court for the military."[p. 258]. This book traces the Legislative history, why Congress overhauled the military justice system, why they created the UCMJ, and why they created the CMA to be the federal court that would balance the tensions between military justice and discipline. These two books should be on every JAG's reading list.