The three-week Military Justice resident course (6-26 May) offered a comprehensive overview of the U.S. military justice system and a comparative analysis of other military justice systems. Topics included substantive and procedural due process, evidentiary practice, trial advocacy, non-judicial alternatives to courts martial, appeals, the role of judges and transparency. Twelve participants from eight countries learned best practices in military justice based upon comparison of the U.S. and other military justice systems. The seminar also included role-play exercises that simulated the prosecution of a sexual assault crime and the preparation and conduct of a non-judicial punishment hearing. These exercises helped participants apply and evaluate the information presented by U.S. military justice professionals.

During this course, participants observed a U.S. Court Martial hearing and received a briefing on an actual case by a Marine prosecutor at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.  During a visit to the Pentagon, they discussed the U.S. system of military law reform with a former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and discussed the history and development of military justice with the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army.

Participants' feedback identified the following strengths of the Military Justice Course:

• "The Military Justice Course increases the Legal 'interoperability' and mutual understanding between nations."
• "The Military Justice Course provided an opportunity for participants to present their own perspective."
• "The knowledge acquired from the Military Justice Course was supported by practical applications."
• The participants' experience with the Military Justice Course also provided a positive impression of the United States as reflected in the following comments:
• "I find American people very kind, helpful and professional in their work."
• "Prior to coming to the US I already had a very good impression about the US.  I read a lot of books about how its officials run the government, take care of its people and their welfare.  Here I was able to confirm that indeed USA is a democratic country, a land of the free whose government is concerned about the welfare of the other people's lives in the different parts of the world."

The next offering of the DIILS Military Justice resident course (MASL P176003) is 28 Oct - 17 Nov 2016