ABSTRACT
The recent Lustig-Prean 1 judgement of the European Court of Human Rights (hereafter the Court) had the potential to see the introduction of a new paradigm in human resource management for the armed forces. The findings of the Court required the Government and senior military staff to undertake a radical re-think of policy regarding homosexuality in the armed forces. This culminated in the announcement by the Defence Secretary that he had “asked the Chief of the Defence Staff to set in hand an urgent review of policy in that area”. 2 The outcome of this has been the lifting of the ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces and the imposition of a new ‘Code of Conduct’ (hereafter the Code) governing personal relationships in the armed forces, a Code that will cover all personal relationships not just homosexual relationships.
