Friday, January 5, 2018

Australia's DMP has some suggestions for change

Brig. Jennifer Woodward CSC
Director of Military Prosecutions
The Sydney Morning Herald reports here on reform suggestions floated by the Australian Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Jennifer Woodward. Excerpt:
Military prosecutors should take a more active role in investigating cases in a bid to improve confidence in the military discipline system, a prosecutor argues.

Laws governing defence force disciplinary investigations are also decades out of date and in "urgent need of review", Director of Military Prosecutions, Jennifer Woodward, CSC, said.

Brigadier Woodward warned that without reform, most fraud offences committed by defence force personnel would need to be investigated and prosecuted by civilian authorities.

The military's top prosecutor used her annual report to argue the Australian Defence Force should consider abandoning the current military discipline system – based on the largely adversarial civil criminal justice model – and adopt alternative approaches, such as an inquisitorial system.

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