ABSTRACT
The intended purpose of military justice systems is to adjudicate service-related crimes within the armed forces. In many countries, however, military courts try members of the military for a wide range of non-military crimes and even try civilians for specific crimes, such as committing acts of terrorism. When military courts overstep their boundaries, victims do not receive justice for past human rights violations, future human rights violations are not deterred, civil–military relations suffer, the rule of law is weakened, and, as a result, democratic consolidation is hindered. Despite the significance of military courts, they are understudied and their political impact is poorly understood. This chapter lays out a series of research questions to address those issues. It concludes by presenting the authors' approach—which involves the creation and analysis of a new global dataset of military justice, alongside seven in-depth case studies—and outlining the rest of the book.
