Page 27 - AGC-Journal-2016

AGC JOURNAL 2016

Jinja, Uganda and the Defence Academy the implementation of a new case
in Khartoum, Sudan. Officers have also management procedure for Court Martial
deployed to Tajikistan; South Korea; cases called ‘Better Case Management’
Canada and the USA (amongst others) on which involves the service police
various training missions. investigating and referring cases to
ourselves with less evidence at an earlier
The majority of our officers attended the stage upon which we must then make
International Society for Military Law charging decisions within a much shorter
Major General Mike Conway and Major General Susan Ridge and the Law of War conference at Exeter time frames. Better Case Management
University, which included presentations is designed to reduce unnecessary
by Army Legal Services and other military delay and is fully supported by the
Women in Ground Close Combat review, officers, academics and leading experts on Service Prosecutions Authority and a
which culminated in the Secretary of a variety of topical areas. comprehensive training package has
State’s decision to lift the exclusion of been delivered to all our staff with large
women from Infantry and Armoured Service Prosecutions numbers of Service Police and Royal Navy
cap badge roles. At the same time, they and Royal Air Force Legal Officers also
have supported reviews on other policies During 2016 the Service Prosecutions participating.
upholding Diversity and Inclusion such as Authority has faced three principal
for Transgender personnel. Work to assist issues. Firstly, in line with the civilian Finally, in line with the Ministry of Defence
the Army to maintain its health and safety criminal justice system, we continue to approach across defence, we have also
obligations are a constant, as is advising see a significant rise in the number of been required to adopt civilianisation
on the design of the Flexible Employment serious and complex historical child abuse measures which amount to 32% of legal
Structures for the medium-term future. allegations dating back to the 1970s; staff which has resulted in the loss of
For the Army Reserves, extensive work many of which arose in Germany and eight Army Legal Services posts including
has gone into the drafting of the codified other overseas locations. These serious the Deputy Director. Notwithstanding
Reserve Land Forces Regulations, which cases are complex and time consuming, these challenges, morale remains very
are just about to begin their journey with significant evidential challenges, due high amongst our Officers who relish
through Parliament. to the passage of time and the foreign the opportunity to conduct high level
jurisdictions involved as well as vulnerable advocacy in the Court Martial and, on
attachment with the Criminal Prosecution
Operational Law complainants and accused, who often Service, to gain additional civilian
have left the Armed Forces many years advocacy qualifications known as ‘Higher
Advice on operational law is provided ago. Rights’ as well as finding time to regularly
within the context of technological attend adventure training and to play
advances and dynamic pressures; where In addition, within the Service representative sport.
the operational environment evolves and Justice System, we have recently seen
adapts to hybrid and ambiguous warfare
and new technologies (cyber, autonomy,
artificial intelligence etc) all play an
increasing role. Developing branches of
law (such as international and domestic
human rights laws, laws protecting
the natural environment and refugee
law) have the capacity to impact on
operational law to varying degrees and we
are required to provide straight-forward,
comprehensive advice to the chain-of-
command within this complex, changing
space.

Over the last year, we have supported
major exercises both at home and overseas
which has involved working with other
nations and with US forces. This has
helped advance mutual understanding
and interoperability, key strategic aims
under the Defence Tasks for defence
engagement and activity. ‘Asante_Sana’ Legal lessons in Uganda. The legal team (from
left to right): Captain Will Thackery, Captain Laura Fearnfield
We have also focussed on defence and Captain Suzanne Appleman (MJD)
engagement, providing teams of lawyers
to support the Legal Training Centre in

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