Military Issues

The term "military" refers to the society within the armed forces and the individual lives of professional soldiers. The professional armies of early Europe grew to be societies separate from civilian societies with special laws addressing unique needs. While civilian criminal law seeks to maintain peace and tranquility, military justice promotes order, high morale, and discipline. This difference is recognized in the U.S. Constitution. Through its constitutional powers, Congress established a military justice system with its own laws, procedures, and courts, including the court-martial, a military court that tries members of the armed services for crimes described in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This system, one of the largest judicial systems in the United States, largely parallels state and federal civilian systems.