Treatise on Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. JURISDICTION. The right of personal security, is guarded by provisions which have been transcribed into the constitutions in this country from Magna Charta, and other fundamental acts of the English Parliament; and it is enforced by additional and more precise injunctions. The substance of these provisions is to be found in the fifth and sixth amendments of the constitution. By the fifth amendment it is declared that " no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall he be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The constitution, therefore, while expressly empowering Congress "to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces,"f expressly excepts the trial of cases arising in the land or naval service from the ordinary provisions of law. Together with this exception, courts-martial are moreover restricted to the cognizance of offences declared by, or under, the powers of the act of 1806, the general regulations of the army and the custom of war; committed, within the limits of time therein specified by persons subject to military law; the penalties depending on the rank of the individual by whom offences may be committed, and varying also according to the powers of the court by which they may be adjudicated. 1 Kent's Commentary, p. 618. f Article 1, section 8. Accordingly, no doubt is intimated in any of the books of our law as...