MILITARY HABEAS CORPUS: I

The mobilization of over twelve million persons into the armed forces in World War II made necessary a vastly expanded resort to court martial proceedings to enforce the criminal law. The trial by military tribunals of civilian employees of the military establishment in overseas areas and of prisoners of war and war crimes defendants added substantially to the number confined by military authority. On January 31, 1950, there remained in federal penal institutions 2508 prisoners serving civilian type felony sentences imposed by military tribunals. Before World War II, legal problems arising from attempts to invoke the remedy of habeas corpus by military prisoners were rare and were primarily of historical and academic interest. In the past five years the quantitative pressure of this military prisoner population has produced a substantial volume of case law in the field of military habeas corpus, has caused the United States Supreme Court to review the subject, and has made it one of practical interest to the private practitioner as well as the military lawyer