LEGITIMATE DEFENSE AND THE MILITARY RULES OF ENGAGEMENT OFTHE ARMED FORCES

Authors

  • Marin-Atanasie Lăzău Military Justice Specialist Ministry of Defence

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15837/aijjs.v11i2.3158

Abstract

In a practical sense, we can say that legitimate defense is at the foundation of any military action or inaction, it is at the same time the legal basis for any decision made by military decision-makers. Of no lesser importance are thoseregarding the general public, society as a whole, given the situation in the current international context, when the right to free movement is already established, therefore any person may be directly or indirectly confrontedwith a limit-situation in which, one’s instinct of self-preservationwould require and result in an attitude of legitimate defense, when one’s own life is endangered, as is the case more and more often nowadays.

For these reasons, the obligation to ensure public security, order and the safety of citizens through a solid cooperation in the civilian-military relationship has become a matter of major general concern, enshrined by the entire legislation applicable to the field.

Given these new features of the concept of legitimate defense, we will try, in this article, by using the comparison method, in addition to the general opinions expressed by the quoted authors, by the doctrinarians of the studies carried out, to include in its content elements of justification of a military nature,for the simple reason that this article is aimed at an audience segment thatbelongs both to civil society and to the military, with an emphasis on the latter, who are increasingly confronted with this concept of use of force.

References

National legislation

The Criminal Code of Romania;

Law 122/2011 on the regime of arms, military devices and ammunition owned by the Ministry of National Defense and by the foreign armed forces on the Romanian territory;

Order of the Minister of National Defense no. M.97 of 2nd September 2014 for the approval of the Internal Service Regulation;

National and international works

Antoniu George, Vinovăţia penală (Criminal Guilt),EdituraAcademieiRomâne (Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 1995, p.276;

AntoniuGhe., coordinator; authors (Antoniu G., Bulai C., Duvac C., Griga Ion, Ivan Ghe., Mitrache C., Molnar I., Pascu I., Pasca V., Predescu O.), Explicații preliminare ale noului Cod penal(Preliminary explanations of the new Criminal Code), Vol. I,Editura Universul Juridic (Publishing House), 2010;

Basarab Matei, Drept penal. Parteagenerală (Criminal Law. The General Part),Editura Lumina Lex (Publishing House), 1997, p.128;

Codiţă Dumitru, collective of authors, Manual pentru instruirea militarilor în dreptul internaţional umanitar (Manual for the Training of the Military in International Humanitarian Law), Centrul tehnic editorial al armatei (Editorial Technical Centre of the Army), PloieÅŸti, 2006, p. 19;

The Criminal Code of 1936;

DongorozVintilă, Drept penal (Criminal Law), Bucharest, 1939, re-editing by the Romanian Association of Penal Sciences, Bucharest, 2000;

Ionescu Victor, Legitima apărare ÅŸi starea de necesitate (Legitimate defense and the state of necessity),EdituraÅžtiinţifică (Scientific Publishing House), Bucharest, 1972, p.128;

PaşcaViorel, Curs de drept penal. Partea generală (Criminal Law Course. The General Part), EdituraUniversuljuridic (Publishing House), Bucharest, 2010;

Toma Gabriel, Terorismul internațional. Reacții ale actorilorregionalișiglobali (International Terrorism. Reactions of Regional and Global Actors), EdituraInstitutul European (European Institute Publishing House), Iași (Jassy), 2013;

Vlăsceanu Adina, Barbu Alina, Noul cod de procedură penală comentat prin raportare la codul penal anterior (The New Criminal Procedure Code commented on by reference to the previous criminal code), Editura Hamangiu (Publishing House), Bucharest, 2014;

Counter-IED Smart Book for Pre-Deployment and Field Use, version 2, Kwikpoint, US DoD, 2006;

Center for Army Lessons Learned, Tactical Commander’s Handbook. Information Operations, NATO, US Unclassified 2005.

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Published

2018-01-20

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