The Forces Law Review (FLR), the first international military law journal, was unveiled on April 9 at the Commonwealth Law Conference in Malta, which saw the attendance of Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Major Navdeep Singh among others. .Three Indian lawyers and a former High Court judge are among those tasked with the editorial oversight of the journal.Earlier, Supreme Court Justice Surya Kant had attended the plenary session of the conference and spoken on the topic ‘Democrats and Despots – Does Consensus Work?’The FLR is a unique academic collaboration between the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ), Washington DC, USA and the Centre for Constitution and Public Policy (CCPP), University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. It covers matters related to the defence services and other uniformed forces such as the Police, the Paramilitary and the Armed Police Forces..The journal was unveiled on Wednesday at the sidelines of the Military Justice Panel of the Commonwealth Law Conference by the panel-speakers - Justice Alan Large of the United Kingdom; Major Navdeep Singh, Advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, India; Mukhtar Adesunkanmi of the Commonwealth Secretariat; Dr Mario Spiteri of Malta and Alex Ward of Australia, along with Justice John Logan of the Federal Court of Australia..The first volume of FLR carries messages by Justice Augustine George Masih of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Rajendra Menon, the Chairperson of the Armed Forces Tribunal, Professor Renu Vig, Vice Chancellor of Panjab University, and Judge Alan Large, the head of the service judiciary of the United Kingdom..The journal carries the text, case-briefs and summaries of important judgments from all over the world, principally from constitutional/ appellate courts with precedential value and also carries a separate section on briefs of recent important developments on the subject and another section for contributed opinion pieces approved by the editors.The first volume will be available all across the world by the end of this month..The editorial oversight of FLR has been undertaken by three nominated Chief Editors and an Editorial Advisory Board comprising reputed personalities from the fields of law, the judiciary and academia. Six Student Editors selected globally have assisted in the project. All editorial positions are honorary and unpaid. .The Chief Editors (Honorary) nominated by the NIMJ and CCPP are Prof Franklin Rosenblatt of the Mississippi College School of Law, USA who is the current President of NIMJ, Judge of the National Guard Court of Appeals and a former JAG officer of the US Army; Prof Shruti Bedi, Director CCPP and the current Director of the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), Panjab University, Chandigarh and Major Navdeep Singh, Advocate, Punjab & Haryana High Court..The members of the Editorial Advisory Board (Honorary) are Justice Maria Elizabeth Rocha (Brazil), Justice Rajiv Narain Raina (India), Judge Alan Large (UK), Senior Advocate Sanjeev Sharma (India), Prof Daniel Maurer (USA), Prof Brenner Fissell (USA), Prof Gwenaël GUYON (France), Prof Rachel VanLandingham (USA), Prof Eugene Fidell (USA), former Head of the Office of Civil and Criminal Justice Reform, Commonwealth Secretariat Francisca Pretorious (South Africa), Dr Song Tianying (Italy), Dr Ronald Naluwairo (Uganda) and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati (India).
