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OF

MILITARY LAW

AND WAR-TIME LEGISLATION

PREPARED BY THE

WAR DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND SPECIAL

TRAINING

1919

WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

COPYRIGHT, 1919

BY

WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY

(MIL.L.)

JAN 28 1919

PREFACE

1. This book is meant to supply, together with the Manual for Courts-Martial, materials for the course in Military Law and WarTime Legislation, as planned by the War Department Committee on Education and Special Training, in the approved program for law schools having units of the Students Army Training Corps, U. S. A. Courses on those subjects are prescribed. This book, however, is not prescribed. It is merely the result of an attempt by one member of the Committee to ensure that students and instructors should find available a collection of select sources; for no other suitable volume was known to be in print. The Manual for Courts-Martial is expected to serve for the introductory course of the first quarter; this volume will serve for the two courses that follow in the second quarter.

2. The West Publishing Company of St. Paul with ready patriotism and courtesy agreed to manufacture the book promptly in readiness for the foregoing use.

Mr. Merton L. Ferson, Dean of the Law Department of George Washington University, kindly undertook the task of making the selection of pre-war judicial opinions.

The two books may of course be found useful by lawyers and others now entering on the professional study of Military Law. The undersigned, having done what seemed his duty in assisting the work of the Students Army Training Corps, did not deem it necessary to restrict the book to their use; he has therefore presented the copyright to the publishers for other use as they see fit.

3. The scope of what is called Military Law has always been indefinite; and its topical analysis has varied with different authors. For pre-war law, the division adopted in Part I, B, of this volume seems to present those distinctions which concern substantially different principles and lines of precedents, viz.:

(I) Military and Civil Jurisdiction Contrasted. Here the emphasis is on jurisdiction and powers; i. e., the extent to which the civil suffers an inroad from the military. This involves the subsidiary contrasts between Federal and State powers; between military and civil court jurisdiction in time of peace; and between the powers and the limitations of the executive.

(II) Military Persons; their Special Rights and Liabilities before the Civil Courts. This involves the privileges or immunities of a military person as to torts and crimes; the application of principles of agency to commanded acts; and a few other related principles.

(III) Government's Liability for Contracts and Torts. This is merely the application of some general principles to acts done by military officials in particular.

(iii)

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