Debasing the Currency? Defining and Prosecuting Mutiny in the Post-War Era

Experience in the first half of the twentieth century had shown that military law had been unable to distinguish between serious and trivial cases of mutiny. The offence could be committed both in cases of the violent overthrow of commanders during wartime and in minor cases of peacetime disturbances. While in the post-war era the military authorities firmly opposed any dilution of the offence, events ‘on the ground’ persuaded the authorities, including politicians and civil servants, that a more discriminating policy for prosecutions was required. Administrative directions rather than changes in the law offered the only practicable drafting solution. However a drastic decline in the incidence of collective protest since the 1960s eventually rendered otiose the problem of what we today may describe as unfair labelling.