Martial Law

A system of law, obtaining only in time of actual war and srowing out of the exigencies thereof, arbitrary in its character, and depending only on the district of hostile territory held in belligerent possession, or, sometimes, in places occupied or pervaded by insurgents or mobs, and whieh suspends all existing civil laws, as well ag the civil authority and the ordinary administration of justice, See, also, MiLITARY Law. “Martial law, which Is built upon no settled principles, but is entirely arbitrary in its decisions, is in truth and reality no law, but something indulged rather than allowed asa law. The necessity of order and discipline in an army is the only thing which can give it countenance, and there fore it ought not to be permitted in time of peaca, when the king’s courts are open for ali persons to receive justice according to the laws of the land,” 1 BI.

Comm. 418.

Martial law is neither more nor less than the will of the general who commands the army. It overrides and suppresses all existing civil laws, civil officers, and civil authorities, by the arbitrary exercise of military power; and every citizen or subject—in other words, the entire population of the country, within the confines of its power—is subjected to the mere will or caprice of the commander. He holds the lives, liberty, and property of allin the palm of his hand. Martial law is regulated by no known or established system or coda of laws, as it is over and above all of them The coulmander is the legislator, judge, and executioner.

5 Blatchf. 321.

Martial law is not the same thing as milt tary law. ‘The latter applies only to persons connected with the military forees of the country or to affairs connected with the army or with war, but is permanent in its nature, specific in its rules, and a recognized part of the law of the land. The former applies, when in existence, to all persons alike wlio are Within the territory covered, but is transient in its nature, existing only in time of war or insurrection, is not specific or always the same, as if depends on the will and diseretion of the military commander, and is no part of the law of the land.