Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/315

Rh MILITARY LAW 297 service, or when ordered on duty with their own consent ; the men of the yeomanry when they or their corps are being trained, when they are attached to or acting with the regular forces, when their corps is on actual military service, or when serving in aid of the civil power ; the men of the volunteers when they are being trained with or are attached to any body of troops, or when their corps is on actual military service ; the men of the army reserve and the militia reserve when called out for training or on duty in aid of the civil power ; any person who in an official capacity equivalent to that of an officer accompanies a body of troops on active service beyond the seas ; any person accompanying a force on active service holding a pass from the general entitling him to be treated on the footing of an officer. In this last category would of course be included newspaper correspondents, also sutlers and followers. In one or two cases persons are subjected to military law to a limited extent and in respect only of certain offences. Thus a militiaman even when not out for training or not embodied is liable to a military trial and punishment for fraudulent enlistment or making a false answer on attestation. In the same manner an army reserve man may be tried and punished by court martial for neglect to appear at the place where he is bound periodically to report himself, or for insubordination to his superiors on these occasions, or for any fraud in connexion with the receipt of his pay. A man of the army reserve or the militia reserve has the legal status of and in fact becomes a regular soldier when called out on occasions of national danger or emergency under the sovereign s pro clamation. When a person subject to military law commits an offence he is taken into military custody, which means either arrest in his own quarters or confinement. He must without unnecessary delay be brought before his commanding officer, who upon investigating the case may dismiss the charge if in his discretion he thinks it ought not to be proceeded with, or may take steps to bring the offender before a court martial. Where the offender is not an officer he may dispose of the case summarily, the limit of his power in this respect being seven days imprison ment with hard labour, fines not exceeding 10s. for drunkenness, certain deductions from pay, confinement to barracks for twenty-eight days, this involving severe extra drills, deprivations, and other minor punishments. Where the offence is absence without leave for a period exceeding seven days, the commanding officer may award a day s imprisonment in respect of each day of such absence up to twenty-one. It is only in the case of the imprisonment exceeding seven days that the evidence before the com manding officer is taken on oath, and then only in the event of the accused so desiring it. The commanding officer is enjoined by regulation not to punish summarily the more serious kind of offences, but his legal jurisdiction in this respect is without limit as regards any soldier brought before him, and when he has dealt summarily with a case the accused is free from any other liability in respect of the offence thus disposed of. In any instance where the commanding officer has summarily awarded imprisonment, fine, or deduction from pay, the accused may claim a district court martial instead of submitting to the award. Ordinary courts martial are of three kinds, viz.: (1) a regimental court martial, usually convened and confirmed by the commanding officer of the regiment or detachment, presided over by an officer not under the rank of captain, composed of at least three officers of the regiment or detachment with not less than one year s service, and having a maximum power of punishment of forty-two days imprisonment with hard labour ; (2) a district court martial, usually convened by the general of the district, consisting in the United Kingdom. India, Malta, and Gibraltar of not less than five and elsewhere of not less than three officers, each with two years service or more, and having a maximum power of punishment of two years imprisonment with hard labour ; (3) a general court martial, the only tribunal having authority to try a commissioned officer, and with a power of punishment extending to death or penal servitude, for offences for which these penalties are authorized by statute; it consists of not less than nine officers in the United Kingdom, India, Malta, and Gibraltar and of five elsewhere, each of whom must have over three years service, five being not under the rank of captain. There is another kind of tribunal incidental to service in the field, or where, in the case of an offence against the person or property of an inhabitant, an ordinary court martial cannot be held, namely, a field general court martial. This court may consist of three officers only, and it has the power of sentencing to death. Another kind of court, called a summary court martial, may be held where an offence has been committed upon active service and an ordinary court cannot be conveniently assembled. In the event of three officers not being available it may consist of two. When thus constituted it can award only a &quot;summary punishment&quot; or imprisonment; where it consists of three officers, however, it can sentence to death. In the case of a field general or a summary court martial many forms and precautions prescribed in the case of ordinary courts are not necessarily observed, the whole proceeding being from the necessity of the case a somewhat rough and ready means of dealing promptly with crime. The Army Act prescribes the maximum punishment which may be inflicted in respect of each offence. That of death is incurred by various acts of treachery or cowardice before the enemy, or by when on active service interfering with or impeding authority, leav ing without orders a guard or post, or when sentry sleeping or being drunk on a post, plundering or committing an offence against the person or property of an inhabitant, intentionally causing false alarms, or deserting. Whether upon active service or not, a soldier also becomes liable to the punishment of death who mutinies or in cites to or joins in or connives at a mutiny, who uses or offers violence to or defiantly disobeys the lawful command of his superior officer when in the execution of his office. Penal servitude is the maximum punishment for various acts and irregularities upon active service not distinctly of a treacherous or wilfully injurious character, for using or offering violence or insubordinate language to a superior, or disobeying a lawful command when upon active service. The same punishment is applicable when not upon active service to a second offence of desertion or fraudulent enlistment (i.e., enlistment by one who already belongs to the service), certain embezzlements of public property, wilfully releasing without authority a prisoner or wilfully permitting a prisoner to escape, enlisting when previously discharged from the service with disgrace without disclosing the circumstances of such discharge, or any other offence which by the ordinary criminal law of England is punishable with penal ser vitude. Imprisonment with hard labour for two years is the maximum punishment for minor forms and degrees of those offences which if committed upon active service would involve death or penal servitude, such as using or offering violence or insubordinate language to a superior or disobeying a lawful command, and for the following offences: resisting an escort, breaking out of barracks, neglect of orders, a first offence of desertion or attempted desertion or aiding or conniving at desertion, or of fraudulent enlistment, absence without leave, failure to appear at parade, going beyond prescribed bounds, absence from school, malingering or produc ing disease or infirmity, maiming with intent to render a soldier unfit for service, an act of a fraudulent nature, disgraceful con duct of a cruel, indecent, or unnatural kind, drunkenness, releasing a prisoner without proper authority or allowing him to escape, being concerned in the unreasonable detention of a person awaiting trial, escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody, conniving at exorbitantexactions,making away with, losing by neglect, or wilfully injuring military clothing or equipments, ill-treating a horse used in the service, making false or fraudulent representations in public documents, making a wilfully false accusation against an officer or soldier, making a false confession of desertion or fraudulent enlist ment, or a false statement in respect of the prolongation of furlough, misconduct as a witness before a court martial or contempt of such court, giving false evidence on oath, any offence specified in relation XVI. 38