Panjab University, US institute join hands to publish 1st ever global military law journal

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, August 18

University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), Panjab University, Chandigarh has joined hands with the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ), Washington, to bring out the first ever international journal on military law.

Titled the Forces Law Review (FLR), it would be covering legal matters related to the defence services as well as other uniformed forces such as the police and para-military forces.

The journal would mainly publish the text, case-briefs and gists of important judgments from all over the world principally from constitutional and appellate courts that have precedential value.

It would also carry a separate section on briefs of recent important developments on the subject and another section for contributed opinion pieces.

In India, the journal's academic and editorial part would be handled by the Centre for Constitution and Public Policy in UILS and published by a Chandigarh-based publisher. The first volume is expected to be released in early 2025.

Globally, military law has largely been a restrictive field, with most periodicals or newsletters on the subject being brought out by the armed forces and distributed in-house. In India, the Institute of Military Law, Delhi, brings out one such publication.

Editorial oversight would be undertaken by three honorary chief editors and an editorial advisory board comprising experts from the fields of law, judiciary and academia.

Six student editors selected globally from law schools every year would edit the headnotes for the judgments.

The first three nominated editors of the journal are Prof Franklin Rosenblatt of the Mississippi College School of Law, USA, who is the current President of NIMJ and a judge of the National Guard Court of Appeals, Prof Shruti Bedi, Director, UILS, Panjab University, and Navdeep Singh, Advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court and member of the Commonwealth Military Justice Advisory Committee.

The honorary members of the editorial advisory board include three judges and 10 lawyers and academicians from India and various other countries.