Military justice in the judicial system of France and Poland: current trends in the development of military justice in the context of international conflict

This article presents a comparative analysis of institutional and procedural features of military justice in France and Poland in the context of their compliance with European standards of fair trial. The research is actualized by long-standing discussions regarding the dilemma between the need for specialization of military justice (ensuring professionalism, efficiency, and promptness) and the requirements of independence and impartiality of judicial proceedings. The methodological framework of the study includes comparative legal, historical legal, and systemic structural methods, as well as analysis of case law from the European Court of Human Rights. The empirical base consists of normative legal acts of France and Poland, ECtHR judgments, Venice Commission opinions, and contemporary scholarly research on military justice issues. The research results reveal fundamental differences in the approaches of the studied states. France implemented a radical reform in 2011, completely abolishing autonomous military courts in peacetime and integrating military justice into the general civilian judicial system. In contrast, Poland maintains a traditional «two-tier system» of specialized military courts with garrison and district courts.There is an urgent need to adapt a military court system in Ukraine introducing the best features contained in both models.

military justice, judicial independence, Article 6 ECHR, military courts, France, Poland, European standards, fair trial, judicial reform, Venice Commission