ABSTRACT
The lawyer, author, and military law expert John McArthur wrote what became the first standard guide to naval law and court martial procedure. McArthur had worked as secretary to Admiral Samuel Hood when that officer was commander in chief of the navy’s North America station. In that position, McArthur was called on to serve as judge advocate at courts martial, experience he drew on in his Treatise of the Principles and Practice of Naval Courts-Martial, first published in 1792. The text proved popular, and by 1813 it had entered its fourth edition. The following selection comes from that 1813 edition.
