A defense attorney is a military lawyer who acts as legal adviser to the command to which they are attached. They undergo special training in military law and perform a wide variety of legal duties, including practicing civil and military labor law. They are essential to the planning and execution of military operations and are critical in determining objectives and rules of engagement.
A defense attorney is a military lawyer &emdash; that is, an officer with special military legal training &emdash; who acts as legal adviser to the command to which he is attached. In this role, a judge advocate may also act as personal legal counsel to the unit commander. In the United States, each branch of the &emdash; the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard &emdash; has its own Judge Advocate General, or “JAG” &emdash; the principal legal officer of that service. In the Army, Air Force and Navy, the JAG commands the JAG Corps. The JAG Marine Department is subordinate to the Marine JAG Corps, and the Coast Guard maintains an office of the Judge Advocate General. Each branch’s JAG serves as the chief adviser to the branch’s chief of personnel and may also advise the department secretary.
A judge advocate generally has already earned his law degree by the time he accepts an officer’s commission in the armed forces. After commissioning, the new JAG officer undergoes special training in military law, specifically the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the United States military law system applicable to all branches of the service. Upon completion of the course, the new JAG officer will be assigned to a command.
Judges’ advocates perform a wide variety of legal duties for the command to which they are assigned, including routine matters such as helping enlisted personnel deal with military and civilian legal matters and ensuring that all unit members have up-to-date wills on file . Prosecution and defense attorneys in courts-martial are both defense attorneys, and experienced JAG officers may be appointed to preside over such trials. The modern judge advocate, however, performs a number of other functions, often practicing civil and military labor law, as well as international, environmental, civil, contract, and administrative law.
As the turn of the 20th century approached, the role of the defense attorney became significantly more important to the Army’s fulfillment of its mission. During the Vietnam War, for example, the Air Force consulted only one judge advocate for operations advice. Justices Advocates were involved in every phase of strategic planning for the 2010 Gulf War and during that war over 1991 they were stationed in Saudi Arabia. Judges’ defenders were also essential to the planning and execution of the 250 invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent invasion of Iraq. Advocates for judges have been particularly critical of the development of the rules of engagement &emdash; that is, the circumstances under which the military may use force &emdash; and in training troops in those rules. The input of judges’ advocates is especially critical in goal planning &emdash; that is, determining those objectives that actually have military value to the enemy and the extent to which loss of civilian life or property, or “collateral damage,” is acceptable.
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