It is a tremendous honor to be asked to pen this article for this edition of the Army Lawyer. As Director-General, British Army Legal Services, I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to reflect upon the extraordinarily close relationship enjoyed between the Army Legal Services (ALS) and the United States (U.S.) Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. It is a relationship which is incredibly precious to me; from a personal and professional perspective, indeed, returning to The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, and Charlottesville, felt like coming home.

News & Notes TAL 2020 Issue 2

I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory—that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow. To translate this conviction into tangible results, I adopted a policy of circulating through the whole force to the full limit imposed by physical considerations. I did my best to meet everyone from general to private with a smile, a pat on the back and a definite interest in his problems.¹

Situated on a wooded hillside across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is one of America’s most revered shrines. Remains of veterans from every U.S. war from the American Revolution to the present conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are interred in the cemetery.

Defender-Europe 20 is the largest military deployment to Europe in 25 years, military officials say. It is scheduled to run from April to July with operations occurring throughout parts of Germany, along with countries like Poland and the Baltic States that once were part of the Warsaw Pact. About 17,000 troops from 18 other NATO countries will take part in the U.S.-led division-level exercise.¹

Among the best kept secrets of the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps is the hidden gem of the exchange officer¹ post in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Recently relocated from the schoolhouse in Warminster,² this Lieutenant Colonel billet sits in the heart of the British army’s strategic operational law support effort at Army Headquarters in Andover, Hampshire. This total-immersion operational law role offers an unmatched, two-year broadening opportunity in every sense of the word.

On 22 January 2020, Lieutenant General Charles N. Pede addressed members of the 68th Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, the Noncommissioned Officers’ Academy’s (NCOA) Basic Leaders Course, and the NCOA’s Advanced Leaders Course to formally announced the publication of Field Manual (FM) 6-27, The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Land Warfare. What follows is an excerpt of his remarks.

Conflict in the twenty-first century is evolving into areas outside the traditional battlefield into new domains like cyberspace, the electromagnetic spectrum, and space. New technologies like artificial intelligence and autonomous weapon platforms are emerging and further complicate state competition and warfare. The law is also becoming an increasingly contested domain. The law plays an integral role at all levels of military operations, from decisions by the national command authority down to the Soldier in the field about to squeeze his or her trigger. To some commanders and leaders, the extent to which the law plays a role in twenty-first century conflicts is a source of frustration.¹

On 19 December 2018, Army judge advocates (JA) huddled in video teleconference rooms spread across multiple time zones and locations throughout Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, South Carolina, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. During the roll-call, they identified their respective commands and organizations—U.S. Army Central Command (ARCENT); Combined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR); U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Vendor Vetting Division; U.S. Army Contracting Command; Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG), Procurement Fraud Division; and the 408th Contracting Support Brigade (CSB).

On the night of 19 October 2019, a standing-room-only crowd watched as members of the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA), 7th Army Training Command (7ATC), and Trial Defense Services (TDS), entered the famed Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice and began trying a court-martial. They were part of a city-wide, biennial exhibition called “The Long Night of Science” that officials in Nuremberg, Germany, billed as one of the most prestigious educational events in the region.¹