Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis.
Martial law is usually imposed on a temporary basis when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively (e.g., maintain order and security, or provide essential services), when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law becomes widespread.
In most cases, military forces are deployed to subdue the crowds, to secure government buildings and key or sensitive locations, and to maintain order. Generally, military personnel replace civil authorities and perform some or all of their functions. In full-scale martial law, the highest-ranking military officer would take over, or be installed, as the military governor or as head of the government, thus removing all power from the previous executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
Martial law can be used by governments to enforce their rule over the public. Such incidents may occur after a coup d'état (such as Thailand in 2006); when threatened by popular protest (China, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989); to suppress political opposition (Poland in 1981); to stabilize insurrections or perceived insurrections (Canada, The October Crisis of 1970). Martial law may be declared in cases of major natural disasters, however most countries use a different legal construct, such as a state of emergency.
Martial law has also been imposed during conflicts and in cases of occupations, where the absence of any other civil government provides for an unstable population. Examples of this form of military rule include post World War II reconstruction in Germany and Japan as well as the southern reconstruction following the U.S. Civil War.
Typically, the imposition of martial law accompanies curfews, the suspension of civil law, civil rights, habeas corpus, and the application or extension of military law or military justice to civilians. Civilians defying martial law may be subjected to military tribunal (court-martial).
Read more about Martial Law: In Popular Culture
Other articles related to "martial law, law":
... The constant state of economic and societal crisis meant that, after the shock of martial law had faded, people on all levels again began to organize against the regime ... had been outraged by the imposition of martial law ... of participants and broke the fear barrier which was paralysing the population since the Martial Law ...
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... In the video game Saints Row The Third, the city of Steelport is put under martial law by the fictional military organization, STAG, after a stream of ... In video game Prototype, and its sequel Prototype 2, martial law has been declared by fictional military BlackWatch in New York City (late New York Zero ingame), after a bio-terr ... In the video game, Final Fantasy VII, Martial law was declared on the city of Midgar by the Shin-Ra corporation in response to the false flag destruction of sector 7 ...
Famous quotes containing the words law and/or martial:
“Here, lads, we live by the law of the taiga. But even here people manage to live. D’you know who are the ones the camps finish off? Those who lick other men’s left-overs, those who set store by the doctors, and those who peach on their mates.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)
“Strike the concertina’s melancholy string!
Blow the spirit-stirring harp like any thing!
Let the piano’s martial blast
Rouse the Echoes of the Past,”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)