Amendments
The Armed Forces Act 1981 amended certain aspects of the Act; most notably, it abolished the death penalty for the crime of espionage for the enemy on ships or in naval establishments. The Human Rights Act 1998 abolished the death penalty for all other capital crimes under the Act.
In 2004, courts martial in the Royal Navy were reformed by an order issued by the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee found that the appointment of serving naval officers as Judge Advocates, and their appointment by the Chief Naval Judge Advocate (also a serving officer), undermined the independence and impartiality of courts martial, thereby contravening human rights legislation. The Order instructed that all judge advocates should be appointed solely by the Judge Advocate of the Fleet, a civilian circuit judge.
Read more about this topic: Naval Discipline Act 1957
Famous quotes containing the word amendments:
“Both of us felt more anxiety about the South—about the colored people especially—than about anything else sinister in the result. My hope of a sound currency will somehow be realized; civil service reform will be delayed; but the great injury is in the South. There the Amendments will be nullified, disorder will continue, prosperity to both whites and colored people will be pushed off for years.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)