Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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partment. Their primary duty is to advise the commanding generals of those commands, but secondarily, it is their duty to advise anybody in the Army who needs legal advice with respect to his official duties. Besides the judge advocates at the headquarters of the various commands above mentioned, there is the judge Advocate General's Office in the War Department at Washington. It is a large oflice with at present 106 ofiicers on duty in it. The most dif- ficult legal questions are sent to it for solution. All general court-martial records are sent to it for final examination and review. At the head of it is The judge Advocate General. The nature of the work of the office is shown by listing the sections into which it is divided: There are in the first place two Boards of Review, each composed of three ex- perienced officers, one of which reads and passes on every general court-martial record in which a severe sentence is imposed. The Military Justice Section examines all other general court-martial records. The Military Affairs Section handles all legal questions with respect to the personnel of the Army, their appointment, enlistment, promotion, discharge, retirement, and pay and allowances. The War Plans Section deals with the legal aspects of war plans. The Contracts Section handles legal questions growing out of the business operations of the Army, advertising for supplies, bids, the form of con- tracts, performance or breach, delays, emergency purchases, fidelity bonds. The Claims Section of the office deals with claims by or against the United States arising out of the operations of the Army, automobile claims, personal injury claims, claims growing out of contracts. The Patent Section deals with patents for all sorts of military inventions. The Military Reservations Section deals with the purchase and sale of real estate for the Army, examination of titles to such property, and handles matters affecting the work of the Engineer Corps in connection with rivers, harbors, canals, bridges and wharves. Finally, there is a Miscellaneous Section. It is my hope, therefore, that I have offered through the medium of this necessarily brief article, some insight into the legal protection afforded the men who have forsworn their individual status as private citizens in order to serve their country. More pertinent to the readers of this article are the possibilities afforded the embryonic attorney to pursue his career in so extensive and comprehensive an organization. There is opened then, a gate to continued legal practice for the young lawyer whose scholastic gown must be exchanged for Olive Drab. zo IPF

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make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. Pursuant to those constitutional provisions, Congress has passed many laws about the Army, one of the most important of which is the National Defense Act, originally enacted June 3, 1916 C39 Stat. 1665 and since amended many times. That act regulates the structure of the Army, its organization into regiments and other units, the rank of its personnel, the appointment, promotion, and retirement of its officers, the enlistment, promotion, and discharge of its soldiers, the several arms and staff departments, the Officers' Reserve Corps, the Enlisted Reserve Corps, the National Guard, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, the Citizens' Military Training Camps. Another very important act, the Pay Re- adjustment Act of June 10, 1922 142 Stat. 6255, fixes the pay and allowances of every- one in the Army. Every year, and in these troublous times much more often, Congress passes an appropriation act fixing the amounts of money which the Army may spend for various purposes. Another important enactment with reference to the Army is Chapter II of the act of june 4, 1920 Q41 Stat. 7872, called The Articles of War, which is a criminal code for the Army, enumerating offenses, providing for courts- martial, regulating their composition, jurisdiction, procedure, and powers, and the ap- proval, review, mitigation, suspension, and remission of their sentences. All these statutes and many others are assembled in Title 10, United States Code. The number and complexity of these laws require a considerable number of lawyers for their interpretation and construction. As a few samples of the questions which the judge advocates, the Army lawyers, are called upon to solve daily, the following are mentioned: Was a certain injury incurred in line of duty? Is a claim against the United States arising out of a collision between a civilian automobile and an army truck well founded, and may it lawfully be paid? May a man who has been convicted of a felony but who has since been pardoned be enlisted? Must the Quartermaster, who needs ten tons of gravel for the roads in the post, put an advertisement in the papers calling for bids and give the contract to the lowest bidder, even though that process may involve consider- able delay and inconvenience, or may he telephone to the nearest dealer in gravel and order it to be sent out at once? Is it lawful for a post commander to issue an order that no soldier under the grade of sergeant may own an automobile? The officers of the Judge Advocate General's Department are stationed at the headquarters of every division, corps, army, air district, corps area, and overseas de- 19

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