Some Military Aspects of the Judges' Rules
| Published date | 01 April 1967 |
| Date | 01 April 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6704000409 |
| Author | B. Thomas |
| Subject Matter | Article |
MAJOR
B.
THOMAS
Royal Military Police
SOME
MILITA.BY
A.SPEtJ'l'S
OF
'I'DE
JlJDGE~'
BlJLtiS
By the law of England. a man who joins the Army does not cease
to be a citizen whether he be an officer or a soldier. Apart from
certain restrictions and advantages imposed upon him by military
law. he retains the full rights of a citizen. Over the years a body of
legislation was evolved to ensure that the officers' and soldiers'
rights are safeguarded and one of the culminating Acts for this
purpose was the Courts-Martial (Appeals) Act of 1951.
The Courts-Martial Appeal Court closely resembles the criminal
division of the Court of Criminal Appeal. •
It
is a superior court of
record and its decisions are binding on all courts-martial and on
civil courts of criminal jurisdiction which are inferior to a superior
court of record.'
For
example.
if
on the question of admissibility
of a confession made by a soldier to an investigator of the Royal
Military Police (special investigation branch), the court decided
that the use of certain expressions amounted to an inducement to
make the confession. civil criminal courts of first instance e.g.
Assize Courts. would be bound by that decision
if
they had to con-
sider the admissibility of a statement made by an accused to the
civil police in similar circumstances.!
The rules governing the admissibility of confessions at courts-
martial have conformed strictly to the common law practice of civil
criminal courts for many years. Courts-martial. whether they sat
under the most arduous active service conditions or in the peace-
time environment of Aldershot, have been required to ensure that
it was proved affirmatively that any confession was free and volun-
tary before it was admitted in evidence.' The prosecuting officer
has, therefore, always been required to prove the circumstances
under which a confession was made.
Despite this strict conformity with practice in civil courts. it is
rather surprising to find that no mention is made of the Judges'
Rules in military regulations until
1929.
4Up until this time. it may-
have been thought that the Corps of Military Police, as it was then
constituted, would rarely operate independently of the civil police
in carrying out inquiries and there was, therefore, no requirement
to detail rules of interrogation for Army investigating agencies.'
The editor of Manual of Military
Law
in 1929,noted
that"
It
can-
not be said that the law upon the admissibility of confessions is
even yet absolutely settled"; the same sentence appears in the
latest edition (1965) of the manual and will. no doubt. appear in
A~l~
1~
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