The First Fifty Years (1958-2008)

• Author: Fred L. Borch
• Pages: 05

MILITARY LAW REVIEW

Volume 197 Fall 2008

THE MILITARY LAW REVIEW:

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS (1958-2008)

FRED L. BORCH*

Introduction

Fifty years ago, in September 1958, The Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army (TJAGSA) published the first issue of the Military Law Review (MLR). Its 136 pages contained three articles by Army lawyers on TJAGSA's faculty and staff. The topics of these articles- "Military Searches and Seizures," "Compatibility of Military and Other Public Employment," and "Legal Aspects of Non-Appropriated Fund Activities"-were relevant and important for military legal practitioners of the day; it would be hard to argue that these articles would be any less timely today.

Since this inaugural issue appeared fifty years ago, almost 200 individual volumes have been published; this issue is the 197th. The MLR's fiftieth birthday is an appropriate occasion to examine its history and its impact on the practice of military law. This article first examines the origins of the MLR. It then looks at the men and women who have edited, formatted, and produced the MLR. This article also examines the content of this periodical, including special issues and those articles that have significantly impacted military jurisprudence or otherwise stood the test of time. Finally, this article offers some thoughts on the MLR's future.

Origin of the Military Law Review

In retrospect, it is clear that the impetus for the MLR resulted from TJAGSA's efforts to achieve the model of legal education set by the American Bar Association (ABA). As a result of the caliber of its students, its rigorous academic curriculum, and the personal efforts of the first Commandant, Colonel Charles L. "Ted" Decker,1 in February 1955 TJAGSA became the first and only military law school in American history to receive accreditation from the ABA. While this ABA stamp of approval was important because TJAGSA was co-located with the University of Virginia's law school, ABA accreditation was part of a larger effort to obtain statutory authority for TJAGSA to grant degrees to students.2

With ABA accreditation in hand-and looking for ways not only to preserve this accreditation but to enhance the reputation of military legal education-TJAGSA began publishing material on military law. A key publication in this early period was "A Chronicle of Recent Developments of Immediate Importance to Judge Advocates." The TJAGSA's Research, Planning and Publications Department, which was tasked with researching "military law and military legal education" and publishing its results "in periodicals, permanent publications, and films,"3 produced the first Chronicle Letter in 1951. Distributed to all Judge Advocates, it contained recent developments in military law (digests of all cases from the Court of Military Appeals, selected opinions of the boards of review, decisions from federal and state courts, and opinions of The Judge Advocate General (TJAG), Attorney General and Comptroller General). Interestingly, TJAGSA began selling the Chronicle Letter in its book store on 1 January 1957-with "Reserve Officers and other interested parties" being the primary purchasers of subscriptions.4

But, while the Chronicle Letter certainly pushed information to the field-and was a valuable publication-every law school of consequence had a law review in which scholarly articles and comments were published. As the students in the Advanced Courses (the forerunner of today's Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course) were required to write a thesis as part of the curriculum, there existed a ready source of intellectually stimulating material for a law review-type publication.

In sum, it seems that at least three factors coalesced to produce the first MLR: a desire to enhance and preserve TJAGSA's ABA accreditation; a ready source of theses from Advanced Course students that could be easily transformed into law review articles; and a publications and research department that had the mission of producing written materials that would help military legal professionals to be better practitioners.

Early Years of the Military Law Review

On 30 April 1958, a memorandum from the Office of the Judge Advocate General (OTJAG) announced that TJAG had "recently secured approval for the publication of a DA Pamphlet No. 27-100 series, entitled Military Law Review, to provide a medium for the military lawyer, active and reserve, to share the product of his experience and research with fellow lawyers in the Department of the Army."5 The announcement further solicited "articles, comments and notes treating subjects of import to the military" and requested that they be submitted "in duplicate" to TJAGSA in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The first issue of the MLR appeared as DA Pamphlet 27-100-1, dated

15 September 1958.6 The lead article was by two members of TJAGSA's faculty, Captain Cabell F. Cobbs and First Lieutenant Roberts S. Warren. Entitled "Military Searches and Seizures," it had been adapted from a thesis written while the authors were members of the Fourth Advanced Course from 1955 to 1956. The second article, by Captain Dwan V. Kerig, was called "Compatibility of Military and Other Public Employment." It also had originated as an Advanced Course thesis, and explored the many federal statutes governing military personnel (especially retirees) who sought to continue their service as U.S. civilian employees. The third and last article, "Legal Aspects of Non-Appropriated Fund Activities," also had been a thesis and it author, Lieutenant Colonel Paul J. Kovar, likewise was a member of TJAGSA's faculty.

While this first MLR was styled as a DA Pamphlet, it looked like any law school periodical. It was the same size and format, and followed the manner of citation in the Harvard Blue Book for civilian legal citations and the TJAGSA Uniform System of Citation for military citations. The inaugural September 1958 issue was well-received and a second volume appeared before the year was out. In 1959, the MLR established its publication schedule as quarterly (January, March, July, October) and, as would be expected of any civilian law review, was available for sale at $.45 a copy or $1.75 for a year's subscription.

Editors and Staff

From the outset, the quality of the MLR depended on its editors and their staffs. But, while there was an MLR editor from the outset, no named editor appeared in the pages of the legal periodical until 1979, when Major Percival D. Park identified himself as the editor in an introductory preface to a symposium on international law.7 It was not until Volume 95, however, which was published early in 1982, that the MLR had a masthead identifying Major Park as editor. This issue of the MLR also identified Ms. Eva F. Skinner as editorial assistant, the first time that a non-lawyer staff member had been listed in print.

Major Park had an amazing tenure at the MLR. After completing the 25th JA Advanced Course in May 1977, he took over as editor and did not give up this position until he completed Volume 95 (Winter 1982)- a nearly five-year tenure.

The next editor was Captain Connie S. Faulkner, who first appeared as an editor (but in an understudy status to Major Park) in Volume 95. Captain Faulkner is listed as editor in Volume 96 (Spring 1982), along with Captain Steven Kaczynski. He assisted Faulkner while serving primarily as editor for The Army Lawyer. Ms. Eva F. Skinner continued as editorial assistant.

Starting with Volume 101 (Summer 1983), Captain Kaczynski was promoted to be the editor of the MLR, with Captain Debra Boudreau listed as co-editor. Captain Boudreau, in fact, concentrated chiefly on editing The Army Lawyer. Kaczynski's editing finished with Volume 109 (Summer 1985) and, beginning with Volume 110 (Fall 1985), Captain Boudreau was the sole editor. Her last issue was Volume 113 (Summer 1986).

Major Thomas J. Feeney was the next editor (beginning with Volume 114), and he held the position until Captain Alan D. Chute took over as editor with the publication of Volume 120 (Spring 1988). Major Chute completed Volume 129 (Summer 1990) and passed the reins of the MLR to Captain Matthew E. Winter. In 1991, Major Winter won "Editor

of the Year" in an Army-wide competition to find the best editor of an Army publication. Winter's tenure was relatively...