International Military Justice Forum

Conference program

Wednesday 25 June 2025 – Ecole Militaire (Amphithéâtre Louis)

8.30 – Opening of the Forum

–       Gwenaël Guyon (Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy, President of the IMJF)

–       Evert Kleynhans (Stellenbosch University, Vice-president of the IMJF)

–       Nicolas Cornu Thénard (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas, Société de Législation Comparée)

9.00 – History of military courts and military offences

  • Guillaume Pinet (Université de Québec à Montréal), A comparative history of the emergence of councils of war in France and England (c. 1650-1715).
  • Nishant Gokhale (University of the West of Scotland), The English East India Company and summary trials in 19th century.
  • Astrid Donias (Université de Grenoble Alpes), Moderniser le crime d’intelligence avec l’ennemi en France.

Questions and Break (10’)

10.10 – Military justice in wartime: an historical approach

  • Emanuele Sica, Italian military justice from WWI to WWII
  • Evert Kleynhans (Stellenbosch University), Andries Fokkens (Stellenbosch University), The first test of South African military law: The 1914 Afrikaner Rebellion and the execution of Captain Jopie Fourie.
  • Anna la Grange (University of Postdam),“I never witnessed such law carried out by Britishers before”: Perceptions of the rules and norms of warfare during the 1922 Rand Revolt.

Questions (10’)

11.20 – Military justice in WWII

  • Gwenaël Guyon (Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy), A French code in London. De Gaulle, the Free French and military justice.
  • Raffaella Bianchi Riva (Università degli studi di Milano), Women before military justice. The trials against mobilized female workers in the military court of Milan during World War II (1941-1945).
  • Matthias Zachmann (Freie Universität Berlin), Fighting war with law: Japanese legal officers and their cases during the Asia-Pacific war, 1937-45.

Questions (10’)

12.30 – Lunch

13.30 – Military justice in post-war eras

  • Jonas Campion (University of Québec Trois-Rivières) Military justice for unusual soldiers? Trying Belgian ‘gendarmes’ for collaboration at the end of the Second World War.
  • Yves Tremblay (Canadian Department of National Defense), Rape scenarios: the strategy of defence counsel in the trials of Canadian servicemen in Germany, 1945-1946.
  • David Turns (Swedish Defence University), Military war crimes in historical and comparative perspectives.

Questions (10’)

14.40 – Military justice and judicial independence

  • Eugene Fidell (Former National Institute of Military Justice President, Yale law school), Can uniformed personnel be independent?
  • Chris Griggs (Barrister, New Zealand), Judicial independence in Commonwealth military courts – a work in progress.
  • David Gilles (Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy, University of Sherbrooke), Should the army be stripped of jurisdiction over criminal sexual offences within its ranks?

Questions (10’)

15.50 – Break (10’)

16.00 – Military justice issues in South Africa

  • Louis Makau (Stellenbosch University), Liberation Armies and “Their” Administration of Justice: A Critical Examination of Umkhonto we Sizwe of the ANC.
  • Lt-Col. Michelle Nel (Stellenbosch University), Ernst Heydenrych (Stellenbosch University), Maladministration, Fraud and Corruption in South African Defence Procurement: Where to in terms of Justice, Discipline and Accountability?
  • Lt-Col. Piet Bester and Lt-Col. Sonja Els (Stellenbosch University), The fight for justice: addressing moral injury compensation for service members in the SANDF.
  • Elsie Morake (Stellenbosch University), Involuntary referral of a military accused for observation: the dilemma in South African military justice.

Questions (10’)

17.30 – End of discussions – Speakers Cocktail

Thursday 26 June – Sénat, Palais du Luxembourg (Salle Médicis)

9.00 – Military justice and international law

  • Col. Winston Williams (US Military Academy Wespoint), Sophia Zademack (University of Zurich), Prosecution of war crimes- conceptualizing past, present and future.
  • Nicolas Cuer (French Ministry of Defense, University of Lille II), Violations of international humanitarian law and new technologies: the case of drones in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
  • Brian Lee Cox (Cornell Law School), High profile: comparative military justice approaches to investigating and accounting for civilian casualties in armed conflict.

Questions (10’)

10.10 – Break (10’)

  • Elisabeth Texeira Rocha (Former Chief Justice and Justice, Brazilian Superior Military Court), Discussion on International Principles Governing the Administration of Justice through Military Tribunals in South America.
  • Clémence Pellissier (PhD st., Trinity College Dublin), Military Law: between Internationalization and Nationalization.
  • Mario Ferreira Monte (University of Minho), Any chance for transitional (restorative) justice for armed conflicts?

Questions (10’)

11.20 – Summary hearings and non-judicial punishments

  • Pascal Levesque (Barrister, Ethics and Professional Conduct Commissioner, Canada) Military Summary Hearing system in Canada.
  • Frank Rosenblatt (Mississippi College, President of National Institute of Military Justice), Nonjudicial Punishment.

Questions (10’)

12.10 – Lunch.

13.20 Military justice in its operational context

–  Christian Angue (University of Dschang, Cameroon), Military justice and private military companies in Africa.

–  Lt Cdr Nick Fryers (Legal advisor, British Royal Navy), British military justice in its recent operational context.

–    Laurent Drouvot (University of Toulon, Judicial Police Officer), Military justice in its operational context: the emergence of the notion of ‘Lawfare’ in modern conflictuality.

Questions (10’)

14.30 – Break (10’)

14.40 – The reform of military justice: global perspectives (Part I)

  • HHJ Alan Large (Judge Advocate General of His Majesty’s Armed Forces, UK), Commonwealth Military Justice Transformation Project.
  • Ernest Nilles (Diekirch State Prosecutor, Luxembourg), The reform of military justice in Luxembourg.
  • Chief Judge Kevin Riordan (Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces of New Zealand), Historical and future-looking aspects of New Zealand’s military Justice System. 
  • Maj. Yvette Foliant (Ministry of Defense, Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherland), Addressing Undesirable Behavior in the Netherlands Armed Forces: A Paradigm Shift from Institutionalized Discipline to Integrity as a Virtue?

Questions (10’)

16.10 – Break

16.20 – The reform of military justice: global perspectives (Part II)

  • Alison Duxbury (University of Melbourne), The principle of open justice and military courts.
  • Jens Claerman (Belgian Ministry of Defense), Pieter-Jan Tuts (Associate Deloitte Legal), Military justice in Belgium.
  • Nicolas Bernard (Referendary at the Belgian Constitutional Court, UCLouvain),  The resurrection mechanism of military jurisdiction in Belgium: institutional aspects and practical difficulties.

Questions (10’)

17.40 – Closing of the event