The End of Military Justice in Europe?

In a new essay, DIIS project researcher Frederik Rosén suggests an agenda for juridical civil–military relations by considering how recent developments in human rights law in Europe breed new forms of juridical civil–military relations. The argument is that the human right driven recasting of legal authority over military affairs from military justice systems to civilian justice systems entwines these systems. Furthermore, that in so far the theories and studies of civil–military relations have not yet really addressed the juridical dimension of civil–military relations as a subject of its own right, this entwining calls for a new subject in the study of civil–military relations, straddling the institutional entwining as well as the sociological dimension of practical cooperation.

The essay should not least be of relevance in the Danish context, where the Danish military prosecutor service in recent years has encountered some difficulties with regard to interpreting and applying the laws of war.