Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/387

351 cedure the point at which it differs from Anglo-American law. It is true that neither grand jury nor indictment is necessary. Charges are prepared under authority of an officer of competent rank without the approval of any independent body. There is no trial by jury. The court-martial passes upon the facts. The reviewing authority exercises a freedom in dealing with the findings which is impossible in ordinary criminal law where the action of the grand jury and the verdict of the petit jury are both guaranteed by constitutional provisions. At the same time the procedure is not unlike that of ordinary criminal courts which try minor offenses in which neither indictment nor petit jury are required. If dignity and military form could be added to a police court, the procedure would not be unlike that of a court-martial.

The great difference between military law and our Anglo-American law is far deeper than this. While the content is borrowed in part from the common law and in part shaped by the needs of military service, while the procedure is a summary Anglo-American criminal procedure, without grand jury or petit jury,