Military Trial Research Articles

루마니아 과거청산에 관한 연구

This paper attempts to analyze the case of past liquidation in Romania’s ‘execution model’ with two dimensions: investigation and reflection on past problems. Like other former communist countries in Eastern Europe, Romania has transformed into a democracy. Despite the 42 years of the Romanian communist regime between 1947 and 1989, the past liquidation mainly focused on the 25-year dictatorship of Ceausescu’s iron-fist, which was dependent on the secret police called Securitate. Once democratized, Romania's past liquidation was implemented in two aspects: past investigation and past reflection. The past investigation was conducted in the form of executions during the December 1989 Revolution. Ceausescu, his family, and his aides were heavily sentenced, including death and life imprisonment in the military trial. However, most Securitate agents received no punishment. The Romanian government has implemented very limited legal measures to compensate or remedy victims' honor. Past reflections have progressed even more slowly. This is because the National Salvation Front, the main revolutionary force, served as a sidekick to the formal communist regime. A criminal investigation body was only set up in 2006, 16 years after democratization. Romania’s lack of decisive judgments and limited systematic past reflection still remain a heavy legacy in social turbulences in Romania. It will have significant implications for the policy of Korean unification in the future.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Promotes Rapid Psychiatric Stabilization in Acutely Suicidal Military Service Members.

This study presents data for using accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as an intervention for suicidal crisis (SC). This prospective, single-site, randomized, double-blind trial enrolled active-duty military participants with SC to receive either active TMS (n = 59) or sham TMS (n = 61) 3 times per day for 3 consecutive days. Our primary outcome, the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation-current (SSI-C), was measured before each session of TMS. Secondary outcomes measured both the SSI-C and the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation-total daily for the 3 intervention days and at 1, 3, and 6 months of follow-up. In the modified intention to treat (mITT) analysis of SSI-C changes over treatment sessions, the TMS active group had accelerated decline in suicidal ideation as compared with sham: β for interaction was 0.12 points greater SSI-C decline per session (standard error [SE], 0.06) in TMS versus sham (P = 0.04). In both the mITT and per-protocol active TMS groups, the mean final SSI-C scores were below 3. These scores remained below 3 for the entire 6-month follow-up period. In this military trial of suicidal patients, we found that both active and sham accelerated TMS rapidly reduces SC. Moreover, in the mITT analysis, there was a statistically significant antisuicidal benefit of active TMS versus sham TMS in the primary outcome. Both the mITT and per-protocol groups moved from higher to approximately 7 times lower suicide risk strata and remained there for the duration of the study. Further studies are warranted to understand accelerated TMS' full potential as a treatment for SC.

Hunter Beattie (1876–1951): A Conscientious Objector at the Margins

Glasgow was the Scottish city in which the Open Brethren movement grew most profusely. During the First World War, significant sections of the leadership of their assemblies supported the British war effort. One individual who stood apart from this was the evangelist and homeopath, Hunter Beattie. He was the leading individual in an assembly in the east end who launched an occasional periodical in which he expounded his pacifist views. His publication was criticized in a Sunday newspaper, and his subsequent military hearing and criminal trial was covered by the newspaper. Other leading Glasgow Brethren publicly disassociated themselves from his position, which, in turn, led to criticism of them by some Brethren non-combatants. As well as giving an example of the treatment of conscientious objectors during the First World War, the paper examines the positions adopted towards war by both Beattie and his antagonists, illuminating aspects of the Brethren, their social class and relationships to society. It examines how some Brethren rejected a completely marginal status in church and society, but others saw the attraction of the margins.

Proces USA vs. Karl Brandt et al. a jeho význam pro rozvoj lékařské etiky v oblasti lékařských experimentů v prvních dvou dekádách po konci II. světové války

The paper deals with the topic of the first Subsequent Nuremberg Military Trial USA vs. Karl Brandt et al. also known as “Doctors trial” or “Medical trial” and its importance for the development of medical ethics in the modern era. The paper discusses circumstances, which led to the trial, the philosophy behind it and the actual proceedings of the tribunal. The author tries to analyze the defenses of the defendants as well as the main arguments of the prosecutors. The aim of the second part of the article is to analyze the impact of the so-called Nuremberg Code, the set of medical ethical rules, which were defined in the judgment of the Tribunal, on the development of the modern medicine ethical principles. In the final part of the paper, the author tries to sum up positives and negatives of the proceedings and its subsequent impact on the medical profession.

On temporality and morality: negotiating POW survival in current protracted wars

ABSTRACT This article juxtaposes the procedures and narratives by which US and Israeli political cultures mediate situations of prisoners of war (POWs) during protracted wars. In protracted wars, repatriation is independent of reconciliation processes, with no international contracts governing the ethics of asymmetric prisoner exchange. Empirically, this article examines political cultures by analyzing news reports of Bowe Bergdahl (USA) and Gilad Shalit (Israel), who were imprisoned and repatriated during the US war in Afghanistan, and the Israel/Palestine conflict, respectively. Theoretically, this article (1) Situates POW affairs as highlighting a contradiction between two ideals: casualty aversion and self-sacrifice. (2) Relates POW affairs to scholarship on military-to-civilian transitions, and harnesses van Gennep’s phases of separation, liminality and reintegration, to analyze transitions as experiences of collectives, and not of soldiers. The analysis shows that US media accounts depict both the war in Afghanistan and the three phases of transition as controlled by individuals’ actions. Israeli accounts, by contrast, employ passive terminology when mediating both conflicts and POW affairs. Both political cultures develop temporal pattens to regulate the mutual obligations pertaining to soldiers, publics and states: a lingering military trial in the USA, and a new conceptualization of abduction in Israel. Arguing that temporality and morality are interlinked due to the open duration of current conflicts, this article suggests a definition of protracted wars that highlights this reciprocity between open-endedness, disrupted ceremonies, and moral changes: from rescuing soldiers to questioning the convention of obligatory rescue.

Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime by Thomas C. Mackey

Reviewed by: Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime by Thomas C. Mackey Jonathan W. White (bio) Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime. By Thomas C. Mackey. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020. Pp. 200. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $24.95.) In his masterful study of party politics in the Civil War era, The Union Divided, historian Mark E. Neely Jr. observes that the "loyal opposition in the North during the Civil War remains to this day in crying need of analysis."1 In the last two decades, a number of scholarly works on the Civil War–era Democrats have appeared, including Neely's own Lincoln and the Democrats: The Politics of Opposition in the Civil War (2017) and J. Matthew Gallman's The Cacophony of Politics: Northern Democrats and the American Civil War (2021). Several excellent works on disloyalty, antiwar dissent, and civil liberties during the Civil War have also appeared, most notably William A. Blair's With Malice toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era (2014) and Stephen E. Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America's Heartland (2015). Now, with Thomas C. Mackey's Opposing Lincoln, we have an account of the military commission trial of Clement L. Vallandigham. Vallandigham is notorious today as the most prominent antiwar Democrat in the North during the Civil War. In May 1863, the former congressman was arrested by the Union military and charged with disloyal speech. Following a quick military trial, he was sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for the duration of the war; however, Lincoln instead chose to banish the "wiley agitator" to the Confederacy. From there, Vallandigham escaped to Canada, where he ran for governor of Ohio in absentia. He lost in a landslide. Vallandigham's story is one that every student of the Civil War should know, and it is ably told by Mackey. In several places, Mackey exhibits great storytelling skill, such as the scene when Vallandigham is turned over to Confederate soldiers in Tennessee. Mackey also deftly explains the constitutional and legal issues facing the Lincoln administration during the war years, helping readers understand Lincoln's thinking on these controversial issues. Indeed, Mackey takes constitutionalism seriously, which is essential for understanding the causes and consequences of the Civil War. The heart of Opposing Lincoln is Vallandigham's military trial, as well as discussion of Lincoln's public letters defending his civil liberties policies. Still, Mackey's slender volume touches on several important historiographical debates, including the adequacy of the Constitution to meet the [End Page 579] crisis of the Civil War, whether the Copperheads posed a real threat to the Union, and the extent to which Lincoln's policies violated the Constitution. In the opening two chapters, Mackey places Vallandigham within his historical context, tracing the politics of the 1850s into the war years. Drawing from the flourishing recent literature on the Midwest in the mid-nineteenth century, Mackey rightly describes Vallandigham as a westerner, rather than simply as a northerner. In explaining Lincoln's view of free speech in wartime, Mackey appropriately describes Lincoln "as a man and lawyer of his times and historical context." After quoting one of Lincoln's arguments, Mackey states, "After reading this statement some moderns will raise the issue of the potential 'chilling effect' on speech and press this policy suggests; but those sensitivities lay in a future that Lincoln could not know" (131). This is sound historical analysis. We ought to strive to understand historical figures within the context of their times. And yet there were strong arguments being made during the war years for more robust protection of free speech, free press, and the right to trial by jury. Mackey analyzes a series of public letters that passed between Lincoln and two groups of Democrats (one in Ohio, and one in New York). He presents Lincoln's arguments in great detail, but the Democrats appear only as foils for Lincoln, rather than as constitutional thinkers in their own right. This is a missed opportunity, for the Democrats' arguments anticipated...

한국전쟁기 부역자 처벌 군법회의의 문제점 －노천명·조경희·이인수의 판결을 중심으로

이 글은 노천명·조경희·이인수의 판결사례를 통해 한국전쟁기 부역자 처벌과 군법 회의의 문제점을 규명한 실증적 연구이다.<BR> 노천명과 조경희는 좌익 문학가동맹에 가입 활동한 혐의로 군법회의에서 징역20년형을 선고받았는데, 조경희는 판결장관 심사에서 남편이 남로당 간부 체포에 협조했다는 사유로 징역7년으로 감형되었다. 그리고 형집행정지 조치에 따라 조경희는 2개월여, 노천명은 6개월여 만에 석방되어 곧 사회로 복귀했다. 이인수만은 구제되지 못하고 사형판결을 받은 지 5일 뒤 처형되었다. 당시 부역자 처리방침에 6･25 전 좌익경력이 없고 대한민국에 협조한 경력이 있으며, 생존을 위해 불가피한 경우 선처한다고 했지만 이인수에게는 적용되지 않았다.<BR> 당시 서울에 남아있던 유명 인사들 중에 부역하지 않은 사람이 거의 없었지만, 그들은 대부분 반성문을 쓰고 불문에 붙여졌다. 그런데 왜 세 사람은 군법회의에 회부되었을까. 일종의 희생양이었다고 생각한다. 노와 조 두 사람은 재판이 공개리에 진행되어 일간신문에 대서특필함으로써 유명 여성 지식인도 부역죄 처벌을 면할 수 없다는 경고로서 일벌백계의 역할을 했다. 이인수의 경우 통치자에게 호응하지 않은 데 따른 박해적 성격이 있었다고 생각한다. 부역자 처벌은 전시의 형법이지만, 그것은 국가공권력에 의한 과도한 법집행으로서 명백한 인권침해이다.

Myths and words

This article aims at contributing to the Salvadoran historiography related to the fall of General Maximiliano Hernández Martinez in May 1944, due to a noted non violent civil strike and the attempted military coup of April 2-3 of the same year. None of the many studies dealing with this matters make a detailed reference to the military trial set up against those implicated in that attempted coup. By using a certified copy of the dossier of that trial as well as former studies, we explore several key aspects of that event, including the trial itself as a type of “historical memory” and also the personal drama of those who faced death in that tragic moment. The article suggest several reading clues for that document, and focuses on the recorded testimonies of a group of defendants and the different strategies they employed in that critical conjuncture. Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 154, 2019: 5-52

Speaking with a Different Voice: Why the Military Trial of Civilians and the Enemy is Constitutional

Speaking with a Different Voice: Why the Military Trial of Civilians and the Enemy is Constitutional

„W czym vertitur powaga moja hetmańska…” Organizacja i procedura sądu hetmańskiego w Koronie w latach 1683-1699

This paper describes the sand procedure of the Hetman’s Court in the Crown Army at the time of the Great Turkish War (1683-1699). The Court has not been the subject of a separate study since the 1920s, whereas older studies relied on a very meagre source base. Meanwhile, there were availble Hetman’s registers (copies of documents issued by Hetman’s chancellery) from the period when the offi ce was held by Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski, the Ruthenian Palatine and later Kraków Castellan. The registers, albeit incomplete (registers for 1683-1685, 1687-1689 and 1696 are missing), contain, inter alia, decrees issued by the Court Martial (i.e., the Hetman’s Court), which served as the basis for this discussion. The Great Crown Hetman, similarly to the connétable de France (until 1627), combined in his hand the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the regular army and the administrative authority over it. One of the major aspects of the latter was administration of justice over soldiers. Originally, the hetman had exclusive jurisdiction in this respect but the demands of nobility who suffered from robberies by soldiers resulted in subjecting soldiers to the jurisdiction of ‘civil’ (i.e. non military) courts. In the late 17th century, one can speak of the practically overlapping jurisdiction of the Hetman’s Court, Crown Tribunal and fi scal organs with relation to so-called causae iniuriatorum (causes of the aggrieved: nobility vs. the army). The Great Crown Hetman did not have as extensive a judicial apparatus as some western European armies at that time. Most causes were adjudicated by Jabłonowski himself (possibly with the assistance of junior judges). The Court Martial had also its own instigator and ushers. The competences of military judges are not very clear. To perform certain evidentiary acts (such as inquisition – an equivalent of scrutinum conducted in district courts (sądy ziemskie) – a kind of on-site inspection combined with the hearing of witness testimony) the Hetman would delegate trusted offi cers or national enlistment comrades and, not infrequently, local ‘civil’ offi cers. The role of military police was doubtless performed by the Hetman’s company of Hungarian infantry. The procedure of the Hetman’s court was similar to that of a trial before a district court. A military trial was in principle instituted by a complaint, it was adversarial and controlled by the parties. Proceedings were instituted by bringing a complaint to the military instigator who, in turn, petitioned the Hetman to issue a writ of summons. The penalty for a failure to appear on the fi rst date was contumacy (a fi ne – so-called niestanne). A writ of summons for the second date was announced publicly. The second term was a strict one – a failure to appear meant losing the case, having one’s pay distrained (this, by the way, was the most effective remedy) and – theoretically – being dishonourably discharged from the army (wytrąbienie). The most common evidence included inquisition, interrogation (involving torture in the case of people of non-noble descent) and an oath. The most important penalties imposed by the Court Martial included the penalty of the throat (death penalty – imposed very rarely, it practically was not executed in the case of noblemen), imprisonment in a tower and fi nally damages, which had the greatest practical value.

Вопрос об единстве русского языка перед австрийским военным судом в Вене в 1915 году. Научные показания проф. д-ра В. Вондрака о сущности и роли русского литературного языка по отношению к его наречиям с вводной заметкой автора и с предисловием и примечаниями проф. д-ра Ю.А. Яворского

Вопрос об единстве русского языка перед австрийским военным судом в Вене в 1915 году. Научные показания проф. д-ра В. Вондрака о сущности и роли русского литературного языка по отношению к его наречиям с вводной заметкой автора и с предисловием и примечаниями проф. д-ра Ю.А. Яворского

Trace, incident, and testimony: The story of Amano Kozo, lieutenant of the 33rd regiment of the 16th division of Japan’s China expeditionary army

ABSTRACTInstead of writing on the grand narrative of the Nanjing Massacre, this article studies a much smaller and lesser known event, or the incident of Amano Kozo, a lieutenant in Japan’s China Expeditionary Army, who (or his soldiers) slapped John Allison, an American consul. It ignited a serious diplomatic dispute between the United States and Japan and led to Kozo’s own indictment by a Japanese military trial. The author analyzes the circumstances surrounding the incident, using the Japanese trial records and telegrams from the American side. He discusses the problematic testimonies from Japanese war veterans made half a century later and concludes that it is impossible to understand the details of history by simply bringing known facts into causal relationships; rather, combing through the traces left behind from the incident and analyzing their semantic meaning may well be a better way to deepen our understanding of history.

The leading characteristics and Implication on Criminal Process of US Military Trial

최근 군에서 발생한 일련의 대형사건(폭행&#12539;총기 등에 의한 살인 등)들은 군사법원법 또는 군사재판제도의 발본적인 개정&#12539;개선의 문제점을 제기하고 있다. 특히 군의 자율성과 특수성의 인정 아래 헌법적 근거로 운영되는 군사재판제도의 다양한 문제점에 대한 개선논의는 재판의 공정성 담보 문제로 귀착된다고 할 수 있다.우리나라 군사법원법과 군사재판제도는 미국의 통일군사법전(UCMJ)과 군사재판제도의 영향 아래 탄생하였다. 따라서 우리나라 군사재판제도의 효율적인 개선방안을 모색하기 위한 기초연구로 미국 군사재판의 형사절차에 관한 주요 특징을 고찰하는 것은 의미가 있는 일이라 할 것이다. 미국 군사재판의 형사절차에서 주요 특징으로는, 첫째 피의자&#12539;피고인의 제권리가 일반 형사절차의 경우보다도 두텁게 보장되는 점 [예컨대 미란고지의 범위 확장, 피의자의 자력과 무관하게 공공변호인을 선임하거나 UCMJ 제32조의 심문(공판전조사)을 통한 검사의 전면적 증거개시의무 및 양형의 재심사 등], 둘째 UCMJ 제39조의 심문절차 중 하나인 기소사실인부절차에서 유죄답변협상을 통하여 공판전합의가 이루어지며 이 합의는 선고형의 하한으로 작용하는 점(사형사건은 제외), 셋째 공판심리에 대하여 벤치재판과 배심재판을 피고인이 선택할 수 있는 점, 넷째 각 죄를 포괄하여 하나의 형으로 처리하면서 형을 양정하는 점, 다섯째 지휘관(CA)에 의한 승인&#12539;사후심사절차에서 공판후합의가 인정 되는 점, 여섯째 군사재판의 모든 절차에서 지휘관의 불법적인 영향력 행사를 금지하여 재판의 공정성을 담보하는 점, 일곱째 특정한 형이 부과되는 사건에 대하여는 피고인의 이익을 위하여 자동적 상소제도를 인정하는 점, 여덟째 신병이 구금되어 있는 자(구금시 설에 수용된 수형자를 포함)는 일반 연방법원에 ‘인신보호영장’에 의한 구제를 신청할수 있는 점 등을 들 수 있다. 이상과 같은 미국 군사재판제도의 특징을 토대로 첫째 심판관제도와 관련하여서는 장교, 부사관, 병사 및 군무원 등이 합리적인 비율에 따라 동료의 군사재판에 참여할 수 있는 미국식 배심재판의 도입 내지는 일반 형사절차상 국민참여재판과 같은 장병등의 참여가 가능한 혼합형 참여재판의 도입 여부, 둘째 피의자나 피고인의 자력여부와는 무관한 일률적인 국선변호인 선정제도의 도입 여부 및 방어권의 전제가 되는 미란다고지의 범위 확장 여부, 또한 피해자의 권리보호를 위한 군사재판에의 피해자참가제도의 도입가능성 여부, 마지막으로는 관할관 및 지휘관의 권한에 대한 발본적인 제도적 보완과 더불어 군사재판의 공정성을 담보하기 위한 방안으로 미국 UCMJ상 지휘관의 군사재판에 대한 불법적인 영향력 행사 금지조항과 같은 규정의 도입여부를 향후 심도있게 분석할 필요가 있을 것이다.A series of large-scale incidents that occurred recently in the military(assault, murder by the gun) raise Military Court Act’s problems or drastic revision of the military court system. Especially, under the military autonomy and certification of particularity, discussion to improve the various problems of the military court system, which is operated by constitutional grounds, can be concluded to a problem of fairness of the collateral of the trial. Korea Military Court Act and military court system was born under the influence of the United States’s uniform code of military justice(UCMJ) and the military court system. Therefore, as a basic research, in order to seek an efficient improvement of the military justice system of our country, considering the trends in criminal proceedings of the United States military court is a meaningful thing. A major feature in the criminal proceedings of the US military tribunal are like that, first, suspect and the accused’s rights can be guaranteed(for example, Miran rule’s expansion, appointment of public attorney, interrogation of UCMJ Article 32 (such as pre-trial investigation), second, the pretrial agreement through a plea-bargain are carried out in the indictment, and fact approval or disapproval procedure is one of the interrogation of the UCMJ Article 39, third, it can be possible to choose a bench trial and jury trial for the proceedings, fourth, to treat the crime of each type as a single type, fifth, in the process of CA’s approval and posterior judgement, Agreement after trial can be recognized, sixth, to prohibit illegal influence of the commander in all the steps of the military court and to ensure the fairness of the trial, seventh, for the incident that a particular type are imposed, to admit automatically appeal system for the accused, eighth, recruits (including the inmates housed in the detention facility) who have been detained, that it is possible to apply for relief by the habeas corpus to the general federal court. Based on the characteristics of the US military court system, first, it need to introduce the american jury system or not the system that officer, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers and military service members shall take part in conjunction with the hearing examiner system by a reasonable percentage and mixed participation trial, such as the public participation trial on such criminal proceedings. Second, regardless of introducing a court-appointed counsel selection system regardless of suspect and accused’s property, expansion announcement of Miranda Principle, third, whether the participation of victims in the military trial for victims of rights protection, or not, finally, to supplement institutionally the jurisdiction and the commander’s authority and in order to ensure the fairness of the military court, it need to introduce a prohibition which is commander of the US UCMJ’s unlawful influence on the military trial.

La eliminación de los referentes republicanos tras la Guerra Civil: el proceso contra Luis Arráez Martínez, gobernador civil de Málaga

Este artículo estudia las formas de persecución y aniquilación del enemigo político durante la posguerra española mediante el análisis del proceso seguido contra un alto cargo de la Segunda República: el gobernador civil de Málaga, Luis Arráez Martínez. Más concretamente, partiendo de la hipótesis de que no es posible comprender aspectos centrales de la represión judicial franquista sin examinar de cerca las condiciones sociales en las que se hizo efectiva, indaga en la responsabilidad que los agentes locales que colaboraron con las autoridades militares que incoaron el procedimiento tuvieron en el resultado final del mismo. El Estado era el organizador de la represión, instrumento con el que conseguir unos objetivos muy definidos y que ya estaban en la base de la rebelión de 1936 como era la «limpieza política», pero es el conocimiento de la realidad local lo que permite comprobar que fueron autoridades locales y vecinos quienes se erigieron en pieza principal para conseguir el éxito de la misma.

The Sweeping Domestic War Powers of Congress

With the Habeas Clause standing as a curious exception, the Constitutionseems mysteriously mute regarding federal authority during invasions and rebellions.In truth, the Constitution speaks volumes about these domestic wars.The inability to perceive the contours of the domestic wartime Constitutionstems, in part, from unfamiliarity with the multifarious emergency legislationenacted during the Revolutionary War. During that war, state and nationallegislatures authorized the seizure of property, military trial of civilians, andtemporary dictatorships. Ratified against the backdrop of these fairly recentwartime measures, the Constitution, via the Necessary and Proper Clause and other provisions, rather clearly augmented federal legislative power to prevail in domestic wars. The “Sweeping Clause” grants Congress far-reaching authority to carry federal powers—legislative, executive, and judicial—into execution.Using this authority, Congress may suspend the ordinary forms ofgovernment and some civil liberties as a means of implementing federal powers.For example, Congress may suspend the privilege of the writ of habeascorpus or authorize military trial of civilians if it supposes that such measureswill help ensure that federal authority extends throughout the United States.Hence Congress has something of a domestic wartime power that permits it to enact laws meant to defeat rebels and invaders and thereby ensure the continuity of the Constitution and the federal and state governments that sustain it.

Taiwan's Politics: Stumbling Forward amid Uncertainties

In 2013, the Ma administration had implemented various domestic reforms, such as revamping the military trial system and the fourth nuclear power plant construction plan. Ma's popularity rating plummeted after the Wang Jin-pyng wiretapping scandal broke out. Ma managed to balance between China, the United States and Japan. The ineffectualness of the Ma administration is likely to negatively impact on the Kuomintang's performance in the coming local election in end 2014.

Prevention of low back pain in the military cluster randomized trial: effects of brief psychosocial education on total and low back pain–related health care costs

Background contextEffective strategies for preventing low back pain (LBP) have remained elusive, despite annual direct health care costs exceeding $85 billion dollars annually. In our recently completed Prevention of Low Back Pain in the Military (POLM) trial, a brief psychosocial education program (PSEP) that reduced fear and threat of LBP reduced the incidence of health care–seeking for LBP. PurposeThe purpose of this cost analysis was to determine if soldiers who received psychosocial education experienced lower health care costs compared with soldiers who did not receive psychosocial education. Study design/SettingThe POLM trial was a cluster randomized trial with four intervention arms and a 2-year follow-up. Consecutive subjects (n=4,295) entering a 16-week training program at Fort Sam Houston, TX, to become a combat medic in the U.S. Army were considered for participation. MethodsIn addition to an assigned exercise program, soldiers were cluster randomized to receive or not receive a brief psychosocial education program delivered in a group setting. The Military Health System Management Analysis and Reporting Tool was used to extract total and LBP-related health care costs associated with LBP incidence over a 2-year follow-up period. ResultsAfter adjusting for postrandomization differences between the groups, the median total LBP-related health care costs for soldiers who received PSEP and incurred LBP-related costs during the 2-year follow-up period were $26 per soldier lower than for those who did not receive PSEP ($60 vs. $86, respectively, p=.034). The adjusted median total health care costs for soldiers who received PSEP and incurred at least some health care costs during the 2-year follow-up period were estimated at $2 per soldier lower than for those who did not receive PSEP ($2,439 vs. $2,441, respectively, p=.242). The results from this analysis demonstrate that a brief psychosocial education program was only marginally effective in reducing LBP-related health care costs and was not effective in reducing total health care costs. Had the 1,995 soldiers in the PSEP group not received PSEP, we would estimate that 16.7% of them would incur an adjusted median LBP-related health care cost of $517 compared with the current 15.0% soldiers incurring an adjusted median cost of $399, which translates into an actual LBP-related health care cost savings of $52,846 during the POLM trial. However, it is likely that the unaccounted for direct and indirect costs might erase even these small cost savings. ConclusionThe results of this study will help to inform policy- and decision-making regarding the feasibility of implementing psychosocial education in military training environments across the services. It would be interesting to explore in future research whether cost savings from psychosocial education could be enhanced given a more individualized delivery method tailored to an individual's specific psychosocial risk factors.

MOROCCO – WESTERN SAHARA: Military Trial

MOROCCO – WESTERN SAHARA: Military Trial

Justice at Nuremberg? Jewish Responses to Nazi War-Crime Trials in Allied-Occupied Germany

A bstr Act This article examines the multifaceted ways in which Jews reacted to the trial against Nazi Germany’s “major war criminals,” which the governments of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France held at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in the years 1945–46. Though the history of war-crime trials in postwar Germany and the representation of the Holocaust in Allied proceedings currently find widespread interest among historians, the roles that Jews played in and around the Nuremberg tribunal have largely been neglected. This article explores the problem of Jewish representation at Nuremberg and analyzes the attempts by Jewish individuals and organizations to intervene on behalf of the victims of the Holocaust. Moreover, it explores contemporaneous Jewish debates over German guilt, the agency and involvement of survivors in the fight for legal redress, and the possibilities for post-Holocaust justice in the framework of an international military trial.

Human Rights Report Details Violence Against Health Care Workers in Bahrain

WHEN ANTIGOVERNMENT PROtesters marched in February and March of this year on the streets of Manama, the capital of Bahrain, peacefully calling for political and economic reforms, a brutal response by the country’s security services followed. The majority of the injured and dead were brought to Salmaniya Hospital in Manama. Rather than being a safe haven for the wounded, however, this facility, the largest modern medical facility in the country, was declared by the government to be a stronghold of opposition protesters. Security forces occupied the building. According to human rights organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), patients were beaten and abused. Physicians, nurses, and other health care workers who treated the civilian protesters were systematically abducted, detained, and interrogated, and many now are facing trial for allegedly using the hospital as a base to try to overthrow the royal government. Several human rights organizations such as PHR and Doctors Without Borders have reported abuses against patients and health care workers. Richard Sollom, MA, MPH, deputy director at PHR and forensic pathologist Nizam Peerwain, MD, chief medical examiner, Tarrant County, Texas, carried out medical evaluations of torture survivors and spoke with people who witnessed physician abductions. They described their findings in a report released by PHR in April, Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients (https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR _Reports/bahrain-22April_4-45pm .pdf). The report also documents the use of medical transport for military purposes, the destruction of medical facilities and medical records, and the obstruction of medical care and treatment. When reports about the injured protesters hit the international media, Sollom said, the Bahraini government put its own spin on the information, claiming that physicians were instigating political unrest, fomenting violence, turning the hospital into a political headquarters, and depriving thousands of people of treatment. Many of the physicians targeted are the country’s leading medical specialists, physicians with 20 to 30 years of experience and impeccable medical credentials, said Sollom. “It strains credulity to believe that these physicians would suddenly, out of the blue, start deliberately harming patients rather than helping them, as Bahrain’s government has alleged,” he said. At press time, dozens of physicians, nurses, and paramedics who were arrested for treating protesters were on trial before a military court. The government’s use of a military trial for these cases calls into question whether the rights of the accused can be adequately protected. Families of the defendants have reported to PHR and other human rights organizations that the defendants have been tortured and forced to sign false confessions in detention. Sollom noted that he and other human rights observers speculate that the Bahraini government has systematically targeted physicians and other health care professionals because these caregivers, who treated protesters taken to the hospital, have firsthand evidence of the excessive force used by the government security forces. “This is one of the most egregious sets of violations of medical neutrality and breaches of international law that I’ve seen personally and we as an organization have seen in decades,” said Sollom. Medical neutrality refers to the ethical duty of medi-