Revised rules for battlefield contractors.

• Author: Stafford, John
• Position: Ethics Corner

The expansion of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 (MEJA) and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) has complicated the legal environment for U.S. contractors co-located with military forces abroad.

Contractor employees and subcontractors at all levels may now be subject to host nation laws, U.S. federal criminal law through MEJA and the UCMJ. In addition to this new jurisdiction over individual employees, contractors must now adhere to MEJA and UCMJ employee notification requirements.

Recently approved clauses in the Federal Acquisition Regulations and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement require contractors to notify employees before deployment that MEJA and UCMJ potentially apply to them. FAR 52.225-19, which is titled "Contractor personnel in a designated operational area or supporting a diplomatic or consular mission outside the United States," requires contractors supporting the Defense Department abroad to give employees MEJA notifications. DFARS 252.225-7040, tided "Contractor personnel authorized to accompany U.S. armed forces deployed outside the United States," requires contractors to give employees both MEJA and UCMJ notifications. These clauses both contain subcontract flow-down provisions.

MEJA, which applied only to Defense Department contractors when first enacted in 2000, was later expanded through the fiscal 2005 Defense Authorization Act to apply to contractors of all federal agencies supporting the Defense Department. In February 2006, Defense regulation on MEJA was further clarified. MEJA is a "gap-filling" statute, creating U.S. criminal jurisdiction for felony-level offenses to cover contractor employees in Iraq and Afghanistan who previously were outside the U.S. criminal jurisdiction.

MEJA jurisdiction applies to all civilians who are employed by and are accompanying the armed forces, to include employees of contractors and subcontractors (at any tier) of any federal agency, or any provisional authority, if such employees are supporting the Defense Department's overseas mission.

However, there is a specific exception to MEJA jurisdiction for employees who are nationals or residents of the host nation where the alleged offense occurs. Unlike host country nationals or residents, MEJA does apply to third-country nationals--those individuals who are neither U.S. nor host country nationals. If the "nexus to the United States" of third country nationals is unclear, the MEJA...