Vol. 103 No. 1 (2025): Special Issue on Military Law

In R. v. Edwards, 2024 SCC 15, the Supreme Court of Canada was faced with the most recent challenge to the constitutionality of Canada’s distinct military justice system. The Court held that courts martial presided over by military judges, who must be officers in the Canadian Armed Forces, were compatible with Charter guarantees of judicial independence and impartiality. The Court’s decision to preserve a parallel but distinct military justice system to its civilian counterpart, along with recent independent reviews of military justice and attempts to respond to those reviews through Bill C-66, the Military Justice System Modernization Act, provides an opportune time to consider military justice issues. The articles in this special issue devoted to military law – broadly defined – bring to the fore issues which are sometimes neglected in mainstream legal writing, but which have implications for a variety of legal fields.