Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Navy JAG Corps solicits applicants for military justice litigation career track

The Navy JAG Corps has established a military justice litigation career track. Oddly enough, the instruction setting up the program, JAGINST 1150.2 (3 May 2007), isn't available on the Navy JAG Corps web site's Navy JAG Instructions and COMNAVLEGSVCOM Instructions page. But in keeping with CAAFlog's constant quest to be helpful to our readers, we provide a link to the instruction on our new web page.

The program allows those meeting certain criteria to apply to be designated as military justice litigation experts or specialists, and most high-level military justice jobs are reserved for those who have been so designated (though, if I read the instruction correctly, a military justice litigation designation isn't necessary to be assigned as an NMCCA judge). The program is also expressly advertised as a means of ensuring that military justice specialists are competitive for promotion.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 12 October.

Does any other service recognize a comparable specialty?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what I think of this yet...while the advantages are obvious for anyone who wants to specialize in military justice, it's not clear what impact, if any, this will have on those who choose NOT to pursue the military justice career track. I also wonder if this career track doesn't create a disincentive for specialists to volunteer for deployments and other hard-to-fill billets? Promotion and detailing are the current incentives to do that sort of thing--does this change that equation?

Anonymous said...

I think this is a great idea. Most folks I know who have gotten out, as well as myself here in the near future, seperate due to military system of pushing litigators into non-litigation positions. If I knew I would have a shot at avoiding the deputy, SJA track, and could remain in a courtroom (my personal passion), then perhaps we'd have some happier miiltary members who would additionally be highly competent.