![]() ![]() This blunt aspect of martial law merits clear-eyed acknowledgment. Violence and physical restraints are part and parcel of the power that can be called upon.įorce may be called on and used to uphold the troubled civil order. When the President exercises his powers under martial law, when he calls on the men with the rifles and on the tanks, those rifles have bullets inside them and those tanks have explosive shells. It is no mere parade when military power is called on and when martial law is invoked. Force is inescapable … there is no human existence without the reality of force.” The reality of force is something we should never forget when speaking of martial law. ![]() It is premised upon the principle that “the state has a right to defend itself” and rests on the proposition that “every state possesses the power of self-preservation.” Martial law has been characterized as “the public right of self-defense against a danger to the order or the existence of the state.”Ĭonsider this with the words of the scholar Karl Jaspers, “ We too easily forget the fundamental reality of force, although it is present to us daily, even though covertly. Under our Constitution, the President can impose martial law on the ground of “ invasion or rebellion, when public safety requires it.” Martial law, therefore, is to be invoked in those cases where the very existence of the State is threatened. Because although the rule of law limits the normal exercise of governmental power through a code of written law, under a regime of martial law the scope of that power’s exercise is not fixed and is not written down. We have retained it in every iteration of our Constitution.īut it is in many ways a power so inconsistent with our system of separate and balanced branches of government as to make its persistence striking. It is a power which we have bound together with the President’s military power. Our history has made us take as part of the natural legal order, as almost for granted, the President’s power to place the Philippines or any part of it under martial rule. This power is martial law or martial rule. Yet surviving within the very Constitution on which our faith in the rule of law is founded is a remarkable relic of power which seems to challenge the supremacy of law. It is a cornerstone of our constitutional system of government. This means being subject to constitutional principles and restraints that preclude the arbitrary exercise of power. The rule of law requires our public officers to act within the limits of their legal authority. ![]() ![]() This means a government of laws, not of men. We say that our Republic is governed by the rule of law. Ideas have a story.įor instance, consider the legal concept of martial rule. The development of ideas has a narrative too. But it is fascinating to also consider a history of ideas. Meanwhile, Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced Russia’s attempt to formally claim the regions as a meaningless war tactic.When we speak of history, we still tend to think of a narrative of events. Ukrainian gains have forced Putin into a series of escalating steps within the past month: the unpopular call-up of hundreds of thousands of extra troops, the unilateral annexation of the four Ukrainian regions, and a threat to resort to nuclear weapons to defend what Russia sees as its own lands. “It will mean the military and local administrations will have the right to do what they want in terms of how people move around or restrict them from gathering,” Vall said.Īccording to him, the mobilisation in the “annexed” regions will now be “a total mobilisation instead of partial mobilisation”, which has taken place across Russia. Local officials said they were planning to move up to 60,000 civilians from Kherson across a period of approximately six days.Īl Jazeera’s Mohammed Vall, reporting from Moscow, said the new measures will mean “more restrictions on the movement of people”. Putin’s order came on the day that Russian-installed officials in Kherson told civilians to leave some areas as soon as possible in anticipation of an imminent Ukrainian attack. It remained unclear how fast or how effectively the new measures might bolster Russia’s military position on the ground, and what effect they would have on public opinion. The published Kremlin decree ordered an “economic mobilisation” in eight regions adjoining Ukraine, including occupied Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.Ī Kyiv official said the decree would change nothing. Putin also instructed the government to set up a special coordinating council under Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to work with the “annexed” regions to boost Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine. ![]()
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