The COJUMA story.

• Author: Arroyo, Enrique

INTRODUCTION

This is the story of COJUMA. It is the story of an acorn of an idea that grew into a tremendous oak of a program, one that continues to expand. It is a story of unrelenting belief in an ideal and dedication to international relationship-building that has developed beyond any of the original parties' imaginations into a vibrant, powerful engagement tool for Twelfth Air Force (12 AF), Headquarters US Air Force (USAF), US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and the Department of Defense (DOD). It is by far the most successful legal engagement program in the history of the USAF, and the most successful legal engagement program in DOD. It is being emulated by other services and unified commands and has been lauded by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Air Force, and various other high-ranking officials. (1)

1. THE NAME

   COJUMA is the acronym for the Spanish name of The American Military Legal Committee, Comite Juridico Militar de las Americas. It consists of the first two letters of the word Comite, the first two letters of the word Juridico and the first letter of each of the words Militar and Americas. The name describes the composition of the committee, which includes military and civilian attorneys from an ever-expanding number of countries in the Americas. (2)

2. THE LEGAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM

   The genesis of the Air Force engagement program was the enactment of the 1987 amendments to the Latin American Cooperation (LATAM Coop) Act, (3) whereby funds for the conduct of exchanges, seminars, conferences, briefings, orientation visits, and other similar activities are made available to each of the military departments. The military departments, in turn, distribute the funds throughout each of the departments for funding the engagement program. Within the Air Force, the International Affairs office of the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/IA) manages LATAM Coop Funds.

   Funds are allocated for distribution within the Air Force on an annual basis, using LATAM Coop funding proposals from all sectors of the Air Force with an interest in engagement with Latin America. (4) After receiving all funding proposals, SAF/IA determines the amount to be distributed to each Air Force activity, including both the Office of The Judge Advocate General (HQ USAF/JA) and Twelfth Air Force. Twelfth Air Force, in turn, further subdivides the funds--assigning a portion to the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (HQ 12AF/JA) for its legal engagement activities.

   The funding proposals are based on input from several sources. First, the Military Advisory Group (MILGP) in each country forwards information concerning legal engagement needs in the country they service to judge advocates at appropriate headquarters--this based on experience and existing relationships. If the engagement is one that is not service-specific, the MILGP will contact the office of the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) at SOUTHCOM for coordination of the event. If the engagement is service specific, the information will usually be provided by the applicable service representative of the MILGP to the appropriate JAG office in his or her service. For example, if the Chilean Air Force wishes to discuss space law, the Military Advisory Group's Air Force member will discuss the requirement with the Chilean Air Force, then call either HQ USAF/JAI or HQ 12AF/JA, who would in turn call the SJA for the appropriate command--in this case, Space Command. A subject matter expert (SME) would be identified, the desired information would be prepared, arrangements for the exchange would be made, and the exchange would take place. Follow-on engagements would be planned and conducted, as required, including reciprocal visits by Latin American lawyers to the US.

3. THE CONCEPT

   The concept of forming a military law committee consisting of attorneys from the various countries in the Americas was discussed as early as 1990, when Twelfth Air Force began to engage in subject matter expert exchanges (SMEEs) with Latin American military lawyers under the leadership of then-Colonel William A. Moorman. (5)

   The idea for such a committee arose after the Twelfth Air Force international law team conducted several SMEEs and realized that, despite interest in a host of common topics, it would not be easy to reach a common understanding of the topics as the legal systems of the Latin American countries, even though similar to the US's in some respects, were substantially different from the US system and, in many respects, different from each other.

   The value of a comparative law program in which all of the countries would be able to discuss, compare, and contrast their legal systems became increasingly apparent as more exchanges occurred. Topics which were of universal interest were military justice, status of forces agreements, peacekeeping, operations law, rules of engagement, law of armed conflict, democratization and civilian control of the military, and military assistance to civilian law enforcement.

4. BACKGROUND

   During the years 1990 to 1993, Twelfth Air Force continued to conduct bilateral engagement activities with military lawyers from numerous Latin American countries. The engagements led to several key events in 1993.

   In March of 1993 a reverse SMEE (one in which Latin American military lawyers visit the US) was conducted wherein the Ecuadorean Judge Advocate General and his Deputy visited the Staff Judge Advocate (SIA) offices at Howard AEB and Albrook AFS, Panama. They also observed an entire general court martial at Fort Clayton, Panama in which cocaine use had been charged and which, after a long trial with considerable expert testimony, resulted in a finding of not guilty.

   These exchanges enabled Twelfth Air Force lawyers to engage in dialogue with lawyers from all of the bases in Panama concerning their perspective on legal engagement needs in Latin America. More importantly, Twelfth Air Force lawyers were able to meet with United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) lawyers and discuss legal engagement needs in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility (AOR).

   The Commander of SOUTHCOM at the time, General George Joulwan, was personally interested in the roles of the commander and his legal advisor--particularly from an operations law standpoint, and asked the group of lawyers to plan an engagement activity on the topic. The lawyers met immediately, and their discussions were extremely productive, resulting in a very loose sketch for a general conference.

   Work continued on making the conference a reality, and in September of 1993, the First Operations and Law Conference of the Americas was held at SOUTHCOM Headquarters in Quarry Heights, Panama. Either the Commander or the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of each Latin American country, accompanied by his chief legal advisor, attended the Conference.

   Representatives from all US armed services also attended, including The Judge Advocate General and the Chiefs of Military Law, Civil Law, and International Law of the Air Force, as well as the SJA for Twelfth Air Force and his international law staff. Both Latin American and US military lawyers made presentations on the topics of civilian control of the military and the role of the military lawyer, particularly in military operations. Speakers also covered other important topics, including the increasing curtailment of jurisdiction of military courts and the trend toward placing military courts under the supervision of the civilian judicial branch of government, with appeals to civilian courts.

   The Conference was a resounding success, with positive reports from all attendees. However, the need for a forum in which a comparative study of military law issues could be achieved by the various countries became even more obvious.

   In December of 1993, the First Aeronautical Law Symposium of the System of Cooperation Among the American Air Forces (SICOFAA) was conducted at Patrick AFB, Florida. The Symposium was presided by then Brigadier General Andrew M. Egeland, who independently saw the importance of...