The convening authority having re ceived the record of the trial, considers it carefully and approves, disapproves, or approves "in part." He may, if dis approving, return all the papers for re consideration, giving his reasons for disapproving; upon which the court may modify its original action or adhere to it. In the end, the convening authority may disapprove this sentence of the court, or reduce it. He cannot, however, increase it.
Following the final action by the con vening authority, the papers in the case go to the judge-advocate of the army or navy, who goes over the papers and com ments upon the trial for the benefit of the Secretary, who, as in the case of the convening authority, may set aside the sentence, or reduce it, but cannot increase it.
A sentence of death cannot be carried into effect until approved by the Presi dent of the United States.
Military laws must not be confounded with maraca law, which in time of great emergency is put into effect by a govern ment over a certain clearly defined part of its own territory. Here we have the case of a government dealing, not with its own military forces, as in military law; not with the territory and the sub jects of an enemy government, as in the case of a military occupation, but with its own territory and its own citizens. The occasion for the exercise of martial 'Law will more frequently arise in time of war than in time of peace because of the unsettled conditions naturally existing at such times. Its most frequent employment is in territory which is in revolt against the government. There were many examples of the establish ment of martial law in the Southern States during the Civil War of 1861 1865; in some cases by a proclamation of the President; in others by the declaration of a commander in the field.
While martial law gives wide powers to the military officers charged with its enforcement, and while it necessarily takes precedence of the local government normally exercising authority in the territory affected, it does not in ordinary cases set aside either the executive or the judicial authorities of the civil gov ernment or interfere with the normal life of the citizens. It is only when its de crees are resisted by the civil authori ties, that entire control is taken over.
Perhaps the most interesting chapter of military and martial law is the treatise drawn up in 1863 by General Francis Lieber, of the United States Army, and issued by the Federal Govern ment for the guidance of its armies in the field. While the principles and the rules laid down in this treatise had long been recognized in theory by the military forces of enlightened nations, they had never before been gathered into a man ual for the guidance of all concerned and given the formal sanction of a great power addressing its own armed forces while in the midst of a great war in which the passions of both sides were intensely and violently aroused. So logical, temperate, and humane were these rules that they have formed the basis of treatises promulgated in the last half century by all military powers, and observed by all with the single ex ception of Germany.