Australian Army Reserve Legal Officer
The majority of these 395 reservists are based in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra, as are most of the permanent legal advisers. But what is remarkable about the ADF`s legal capacity in the reserve is the relative number of reservists and permanent legal advisers. In addition to these 395 active lawyers from the reserve`s ADF, there are 155 full-time permanent lawyers. That is less than half the number of reservists. But they are all full-time, unlike the reservists. The permanent legal officers of the ADF are distributed among the services as follows: Army 68, Navy 40 and Air Force 47. Defence Legal also employs 116 civilian staff, 37 of whom are lawyers, 40 paralegals and 39 other auxiliary staff. The majority of these employees work in Canberra. Reservists also conduct command-designated training courses and act as assistants to the camp governor. They also provide legal assistance for the many problems that may arise in the administration of army, navy and air force cadences.
The Defence Abuse Response TaskForce (DART) was created in response by the Australian government to the DLA Piper review of previous incidents of sexual and other abuse within the ADF. The first chair of this task force was Major-General Len Roberts-Smith RFD QC, a retired JAG. The Task Force has conducted specific investigations, including the group of complainants known as ADFA24 and the abuse of HMAS Leeuwin. The Working Group is currently involved in the important process of restorative engagement with those who have suffered these abuses. This process is mainly carried out by permanent officers of the public service. However, the task force also requires detailed investigations into evidence relating to specific incidents to determine whether or not incidents should be referred to federal or state DPPs for possible prosecution. This work is done by reserve officers with criminal law experience. The Defence Legal Division is an integrated legal organization specialized at the national level.
Many legal reservists are also involved in the military and international law centres integrated into Australian universities. Some of them support the Sydney Military Law Centre, where they teach permanent lawyers, foreign general service officers and law officers, as well as Australian civilian students, military and international law. These teaching legal reservists are highly experienced former permanent officers who provided international or operational legal advice while deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Reservists are reconstituted in permanent clubs so that permanent legal officers can be deployed or take time off. Reservists also provide legal advice in areas so legally specialized that the ADF could not be expected to develop its own in-house legal expertise at an equivalent level. An example of this is the complex area of occupational health and safety law, in which a number of reserve law firms are active in civilian life and advise the ADF. Legal reservists dominate this work, although permanent lawyers play an increasing role. The Australian Army Legal Corps (AALC)[1] consists of regular and reserve officers who provide commanders with specific legal advice and general legal advice at all ranks. You must be admitted as an Australian lawyer.
The ADF`s military disciplinary system is structured at its higher levels as a civilian court, with military judge lawyers fulfilling the role of judge and lawyers acting for both prosecution and defense. But the system in which the ADF now operates is only a temporary court martial system. After the High Court of Australia declared the former Australian military court incompatible with the division of judicial power in the Australian Constitution (Lane v Morrison [2009] HCA 29; CLR 230), the current provisional system was introduced until a decision was taken on the form of a permanent system. The military justice system currently consists of a permanent Judge Advocate who is a judge at the former Australian Military Court, Major-General Ian Westwood AM, the Chief Justice Advocate, and two judge lawyers, one of whom is a retired federal judge, the Honourable Dennis Cowdroy OAM QC RANR. The other is a seasoned lawyer who practices in his civilian life as a specialist in criminal law, Wing Commander Greg Lynham. As General Counsel of the ADF, as a legal reservist, I offer my support only in one of these areas, in military discipline. I will now take a closer look at each of them. But reserve lawyers are not full-time agents.
Sometimes integrating them into full-time operations is not so easy. I had this experience when I was tasked with conducting an investigation aboard HMAS Kanimbla in the second half of the 2003 Iraq war. I investigated whether the officers on board this ship and others had threatened the sailors with professional consequences if the sailors refused to receive the anthrax injections that were mandatory before entering the Middle East area of operation. Legal officers may also appear on behalf of members of the Australian Defence Force accused of offences such as theft of firearms, although this is not usually heard at regimental or battalion level. They can also act as law enforcement officers and assist boards of inquiry. Promotion and level of remuneration are determined by experience as well as recognised levels of legal competence closely related to the acquisition of postgraduate qualifications, such as the Master of Laws specialising in military law through the Australian National University. Many members of the Legal Corps have been appointed Queen`s Counsel or Senior Advocate, and some have been appointed to various Australian courts (including county, district and state supreme courts). [2] Before I get into the details of my topic, I will make two general remarks about lawyers working at the ADF. The first is that 25 years ago, when I entered the service, there was considerable hostility towards lawyers. But over the past ten years, this has almost completely dissolved. In official and civil life, most people today recognize that the regulatory obligations imposed on individuals are so complex that legal assistance is useful and often essential.
The third pillar of the military discipline system is the Director of Defence Counsel Services, which organizes reserve and permanent officers who appear as defence counsel and appear in court martial proceedings for defence personnel. A common match in this situation is for an experienced reserve lawyer to lead a permanent lawyer who trains in advocacy and courtroom skills. The Defence Legal Division is based in Canberra. Officer representatives are sent to most major commands, formations and organisations across Australia. Defence Legal consists of permanent and reserve officers from the Navy, Army and Air Force (with the exception of legal officers seconded to the ADF Inspector General and the Judge`s Advocate General`s Office). The Defence Legal Service also includes all civilian lawyers and paralegals of the Ministry of Defence. The independence of right-wing reservists can be a huge advantage in larger investigations. The 2005 Sea King BOI, in which I participated, is an example of this. Let me give you the context of the question. Inadequate maintenance of the Sea King Shark 02 helicopter caused a terrible accident and fire on the island of Nias, Indonesia, during Operation Sumatra Assist II.