Can a US soldier refuse an order?
Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime to disobey a lawful military order or regulation. You can be considered to be in violation of Article 92 if you intentionally violate or fail to follow an order. This means that you can be guilty under Article 92 for an intentional or negligent act.
Would a military officer be liable for following orders from a superior commander to violate international law?
Chief Justice Taney of the United States Supreme Court declared: “It can never be maintained that a military officer can justify himself for doing an unlawful act by producing the order of his superior. The order may palliate, but it cannot justify” the deed.
Does a soldier have to obey an illegal order?
All military members take an oath to “obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me…” The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 90 clarifies that the duty is to obey “the lawful orders of his/her superior.” This has been interpreted to also mean that a …
Do military officers have to obey the orders of their superior?
Notice the oath states, “I will obey the orders of the President of the United States…”, but the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 90 states that military personnel need to obey the “lawful orders of his/her superior. The duty and obligation to obey lawful orders creates no grey area for discussion.
Should a military officer refuse an order on moral grounds?
The authors object to the idea that a military officer should refuse an order on moral grounds because “one individual’s definition of what is moral, ethical, and even professional can differ from someone else’s.”4 This claim appears to let the military officer off the hook from making any moral decisions.
Is it illegal to disobey an order in the military?
It depends on the order. Military members disobey orders at their own risk. They also obey orders at their own risk. An order to commit a crime is unlawful. An order to perform a military duty, no matter how dangerous, is lawful as long as it doesn’t involve the commission of a crime.
Should the accused have refused to obey the court order?
But no such confidence can be held to exist if such an order is universally known to everybody, including also the accused, to be without any doubt whatever against the law. They should, therefore, have refused to obey. As they did not do so, they must be punished.”