HOW LAWS PROTECT YOU

The basic purpose of laws is not to restrict your activities but to give you security and protect your interests and the general welfare.

We rely upon law in some form in almost everything we do, usually without being conscious of it. We are protected by laws day and night-while we work, play, eat, and sleep. The pure food laws, for example, guard our health; labor laws establish standards of safety, working conditions, and hours; businesses, schools, and organizations of various kinds are regulated by laws in their own and the public interest. The Uniform Code of Military Justice protects the rights of members of our Armed Forces.

In addition to such laws protecting us in specific ways, we have the broader protections of the Bill of Rights-the freedom to speak, to worship, to work and live where we choose, and in general to pursue our individual destiny as we wish so long as it is by lawful means.

It has been said that we rely upon law almost as much as the air we breathe. The evidence of this is all about us. Every church stands as a monument to freedom of religion; every newspaper is a fulfillment of the promise of press freedom; every school and library an evidence of our freedom to learn; every town meeting a guarantor of free speech; every courthouse a symbol of equal justice.

ORIGINS OF LAW

The legal and judicial system which we know in the United States today is the product of countless centuries of man's struggle for justice. These struggles began many thousands of years ago, long before recorded history. From the beginning, law has been the very fiber of society.

Early Milestones of Law

An early milestone in the development of law and society was the Code of Hammurabi, named for the Babylon ruler. Written about 4,000 years ago, the laws making up the Code were used in courts throughout the Babylonian Empire for centuries.

Some 1,200 years later God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments. They formed a simple code of law that met the demands of a loosely organized society, and still provides the moral foundation of our present-day statutory codes.

Roman Law

As society became increasingly complex, a more intricate legal system evolved. Law was brought to a high level of development by the Romans, who had a genius for integrating the solutions of social problems into a remarkable body of laws.

A signal achievement was the Corpus Juris Civilis, now known as the Justinian Code. It was in 528 A.D., following the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, that Emperor Justinian from his Eastern capital of Constantinople ordered the compilation, systematization, and consolidation of all Roman law which later was to bear his name.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, the formal legal system that had existed in Western Europe fell for a time into disuse. Although some elements of Roman law survived through memory and habit, most Europeans came to be governed by local laws of the Teutonic tribes for the next several hundred years.

It was not until the 12th century, when the Justinian Code was rediscovered by Italian scholars, that the full impact of this vast legal system, which recognized the rights and privileges of the individual to a great degree, again was felt in Western Europe. It later became the foundation for the legal systems in most continental European nations.

English Common Law

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Meanwhile, in Britain a system of law of a radically different nature was developing. known today as English common law. As opposed to a written code, the common law was a composite of the ways in which the judges had dealt with the disputes of groups and individuals.

English common law grew out of the halfremembered Roman colonial laws and Anglo Saxon custom welded to Norman common law after the Norman conquest of 1066. It has for us two major aspects: One is as the root of the rules that govern us in our own ways of action; that is what may be called the straight "common law" phase. The other is the political heritage of our own rights against the government. This has been called America's finest possession.

Magna Carta

A landmark in the development of English common law on the side of civil rights was the Magna Carta, forced from King John at Runnymede in 1215. The famous charter resulted from rebellion of the barons against abuse of

the royal prerogative to levy taxes against them. Although at the time it was drawn up, the Magna Carta was intended as a means of providing protection to an aristocracy, the feudal landlords, it has, like writing and reading and food, through the centuries come to be regarded as a basis of rights for every citizen of Britain and the United States.

American Law

Borrowing generously from English common law and using the Declaration of Independence as their guiding principle, our Founding Fathers shaped a body of law dedicated to individual freedom. The first and most important fruit of their efforts was the United States Constitution, followed immediately by the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.

The legal system in the United States, especially in regard to the rules between man and man or between groups, also is heavily indebted to Sir William Blackstone, the Oxford University law professor who began publishing his famous Commentaries on the Laws of England in 1765. Blackstone's writings were read widely by American statesmen, judges, and lawyers for more than one hundred years.

Common law is employed today in every State in the nation, although to a lesser degree in Louisiana, where the civil law system derived originally from the Napoleonic Code. This Code traces its lineage back to Roman law.

The Declaration of Independence was a major document on the political side. It was a protest against an unjust colonial administration. It listed such grievances as taxation without representation, deprivation of trial by jury, unwarranted search of homes, seizure and imprisonment of individuals, and the quartering of armed troops in homes. This plueprint of American freedom established the principle that all men are equal before the law.

The Constitution of the United States-which includes the Bill of Rights-is the bedrock on which our legal and political system is founded. From it we have inherited the greatest degree of freedom and protection of individual rights ever experienced by man.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SERVICEMAN-CITIZEN

The responsibility of the serviceman and citizen is of definite importance in the world of the 1960's. Our Nation and the Soviet Union are engaged in what amounts to a competition for the acceptance of democracy or communism by the many uncommitted nations of the world.

The United States, as a leading exponent of democracy, must be in the vanguard in demonstrating the true value of the democratic way of life a way that emphasizes the right of the majority to enact reasonable laws for the regulation of the whole. Lawlessness to any degree by Americans tends to cast doubt on the value of the democratic system. It tends to show that this system does not work very well, that free people cannot regulate their own affairs, and that society can function effectively only under the boot of a police state. This, in effect, is the unstated thesis of Communist organization. Consequently, it can be seen that the rule of law, under freedom, and the responsibility of all citizens to conform thereto, is a vital factor in the struggle to remain free.

The law is not a set of cut and dried rules but a living institution. The political, economic, and social heritage of a civilization forms its content, though at the same time the future of that civilization is being molded by its laws. There is no real mystery, forbidding in its concept or merciless in its operation, surrounding the law and its application. The concept of law outlined in the Declaration of Independence has been carried forward. It can only reach new heights by the continuing display of respect for it and the acceptance of the responsibilities that attach to it.

There is a special incentive for such an occasion as Law Day at this time in our Nation's history. Freedom and justice for the individual are keystones of our Nation's strength. It has been said that the peoples of the world understand, better than any other facts of American life, the meanings of liberty and opportunity under the law for the individual citizen in our country. The American legal system is the antithesis of communism, and nothing is more appropriate than that the people of America should proclaim through Law Day their dedication to its great principles.

FORESENIC SCIENCES SYMPOSIUM

RADM W. C. Mott, the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy, opened the Forensic Sciences Symposium at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology held during the period 8 through 10 May. ADM Mott, in welcoming the civilian and military participants from the legalmedical and law enforcement fields, spoke of the close association these disciplines enjoyed and their cooperation in the founding of the United States. The Symposium consisted of over 150 participants among whom were hospital commanders, legal and medical officers, military and police and other investigating officers discussing problems of mutual interest.

INVESTIGATIVE PROCEEDINGS

(Continued from page 80) a reservist who was traveling in his automobile and returning home following such drill period.16 While proceeding directly to his home, his car stalled due to heavy rain and he was forced to leave the car there beside the highway. In some undisclosed manner he reached his home. The rain was becoming worse and he did not go into the house, but called to his father and, together they proceeded back to the stalled automobile. The reservist was drowned at the scene in a flash flood. The decision here was that he died not while traveling directly from inactive duty training, since he had, by arriving at his home, effectively terminated his travel. The trip back to retrieve his automobile was in the nature of a separate private venture.

17

Before condemning these close decisions as being harsh, consider these words of the Comptroller General in discussing a case in which an inactive duty reservist was injured in government quarters (barracks) on the morning of the drill day, but prior to the time for muster: 17 Because of the obvious difficulties in administration, if Congress had intended to cover reservists on inactive duty training drills when not actually performing training drills, it doubtless would have used appropriate language to make that intention clear. . . . [T]he Congress expressly provided (in the Servicemen's and Veteran's Survivor Benefits Act, a part of which provides for payment of the death gratuity) that a reservist should be deemed to be on inactive duty training while proceeding directly to or returning directly from inactive duty training and established standards for the determination of when the reservist is so proceeding. In that connection, H.R. Rep. 993, Part I, 84th Congress, at page 30, states with respect to that provision that—

Some fears have been expressed to the committee that this subparagraph will lead to many claims by persons not entitled to benefits. The committee has therefore provided as a safeguard that when any claim is filed by reason of this subparagraph, the burden of proof shall be upon the claimant.

The law is stated, and close decisions will always be with us. The investigating officer's duty is to gather and report all the facts, so that the law can be properly and intelligently applied.

OTHER RECURRING ERRORS

The following list is presented to illustrate additional items most frequently erred in by investigating officers in their reports. Where

16. Unpublished JAG opinion, Bnd. #10375-61 of 22 September 1961. 17. 38 Comp. Gen. 841, 1959.

applicable, notes follow items, and refer to sections of the Manual of the Judge Advocate General.

1. Failure to submit evidence to support every stated fact and opinion. 0210a; 0901d; 1101b. 2. Submitting mechanically reproduced copies of documents which are completely unreadable. 3. Appointing an investigating officer (or board member) junior in rank to an interested party. 0208c.

4. Failure to state the amount of lost time clearly as a fact. If the injured person is still disabled at the time of submission of the report, a medical officer's prognosis should be included.

5. Leave or liberty status not stated. No evidence as to whether an unauthorized absence of less than 24 hours materially interfered with military duty. 0807b (3); 0807d.

6. Failure to differentiate between lost time from injury, and use of non-habit forming drugs, and that resulting from use of alcoholic beverages and/or habit forming drugs. 0801; 0802; 0809 d and e.

7. Failure to state the date and time of injury or death as a fact or opinion. 0901.

8. Failure to identify all witnesses fully by rank/rate and file/service number. (Never casually mention a person for the first time, leaving his identity to conjecture.) 0901.

9. Failure to date all statements and every other accompanying paper.

10. Investigations convened by officer not authorized (Chief of Staff; Chief Staff Officer; Executive Officer; Safety Officer). 0206.

11. Record not forwarded via a General Court-martial Authority (Routing is a matter to be determined by Convening Authority, revised by superior in command if necessary; nevertheless, one GCM authority should review). 0211a (1).

12. Records are forwarded via Offices and Bureaus of the Navy Department. This is accomplished by JAG, after review of the record. 0212b (2).

13. Known results are not reported by convening and other reviewing authorities (Discuss all matters disclosed in the record-disciplinary or administrative action taken or planned-recommendations acted upon or intent 0211a (3) (b).

to act).

14. Delay and other deficiencies not explained. 15. Multiple report made of one incident. 0207c.

Finally, follow closely sec. 1101-03 of JAG Manual to avoid errors.