Mutiny is a
conspiracy among members of a group of
similarly-situated individuals (typically members of the
military; or the
crew of any
ship, even if they are civilians) to openly oppose, change or
overthrow an existing authority. The term is commonly used for a
rebellion among members of the military
against their superior officer(s).
During the
Age of Discovery, mutiny
particularly meant open rebellion against a ship’s
captain. This occurred, for example,
during
Magellan’s journey,
resulting in the killing of one mutineer, the
execution of another and the
marooning of two others, and on
Henry Hudson’s
Discovery, resulting in
Hudson and others being set adrift in a boat.
Penalty
Most countries still punish mutiny with particularly harsh
penalties, sometimes even the
death
penalty. Mutiny is typically thought of only in a shipboard
context, but many countries’ laws make no such distinction, and
there have been notable mutinies on land.
Particular countries
United Kingdom
In the
United
Kingdom, until 1689 mutiny was regulated by Articles of War, instituted by the
monarch and effective only in a period of war. In 1689, the first
Mutiny Act was passed, passing the responsibility to
enforce discipline within the military to Parliament. The
Mutiny Act, altered in 1803,
and the
Articles of War defined the nature and punishment
of mutiny, until the latter were replaced by the
Army
Discipline and Regulation Act in 1879. This, in turn, was
replaced by the
Army Act in 1881.
Today the
Army Act 1955
defines mutiny as follows:
The same definition applies in the
Royal
Navy and
Royal Air Force.
The military law of England in early times existed, like the forces
to which it applied, in a period of war only. Troops were raised
for a particular service, and were disbanded upon the cessation of
hostilities. The crown, by prerogative, made laws known as
Articles of War, for the government and discipline of the
troops while thus embodied and serving. Except for the punishment
of desertion, which was made a
felony by
statute in the reign of
Henry
VI, these ordinances or Articles of War remained almost the
sole authority for the enforcement of discipline until 1689, when
the first
Mutiny Act was passed and the military forces of
the crown were brought under the direct control of parliament. Even
the Parliamentary forces in the time of
Charles I and
Oliver Cromwell were governed, not by an act
of the legislature, but by articles of war similar to those issued
by the king and authorized by an ordinance of the Lords and
Commons, exercising in that respect the sovereign prerogative. This
power of law-making by prerogative was however held to be
applicable during a state of actual war only, and attempts to
exercise it in time of peace were ineffectual. Subject to this
limitation it existed for considerably more than a century after
the passing of the first Mutiny Act.
From 1689 to 1803, although in peace time the Mutiny Act was
occasionally suffered to expire, a statutory power was given to the
crown to make Articles of War to operate in the colonies and
elsewhere beyond the seas in the same manner as those made by
prerogative operated in time of war.
In 1715, in consequence of the rebellion, this power was created in
respect of the forces in the kingdom, but apart from and in no
respect affected the principle acknowledged all this time that the
crown of its mere prerogative could make laws for the government of
the army in foreign countries in time of war.
The Mutiny Act of 1803 effected a great constitutional change in
this respect: the power of the crown to make any Articles of War
became altogether statutory, and the prerogative merged in the act
of parliament. The
Mutiny Act 1873
was passed in this manner.
So matters remained till 1879, when the last Mutiny Act was passed
and the last Articles of War were promulgated. The Mutiny Act
legislated for offenses in respect of which death or penal
servitude could be awarded, and the Articles of War, while
repeating those provisions of the act, constituted the direct
authority for dealing with offenses for which imprisonment was the
maximum punishment as well as with many matters relating to trial
and procedure.
The act and the articles were found not to harmonize in all
respects. Their general arrangement was faulty, and their language
sometimes obscure. In 1869 a royal commission recommended that both
should be recast in a simple and intelligible shape. In 1878 a
committee of the House of Commons endorsed this view and made
recommendations as to how the task should be performed. In 1879
passed into law a measure consolidating in one act both the Mutiny
Act and the Articles of War, and amending their provisions in
certain important respects. This measure was called the Army
Discipline and Regulation Act 1879.
After one or two years experience finding room for improvement, it
was superseded by the Army Act 1881, which hence formed the
foundation and the main portion of the military law of England,
containing a proviso saving the right of the crown to make Articles
of War, but in such a manner as to render the power in effect a
nullity by enacting that no crime made punishable by the act shall
be otherwise punishable by such articles. As the punishment of
every conceivable offence was provided, any articles made under the
act could be no more than an empty formality having no practical
effect.
Thus the history of English military law up to 1879 may be divided
into three periods, each having a distinct constitutional aspect:
(I) prior to 1689, the army, being regarded as so many personal
retainers of the sovereign rather than servants of the state, was
mainly governed by the will of the sovereign; (2) between 1689 and
1803, the army, being recognized as a permanent force, was governed
within the realm by statute and without it by the prerogative of
the crown and (3) from 1803 to 1879, it was governed either
directly by statute or by the sovereign under an authority derived
from and defined and limited by statute. Although in 1879 the power
of making Articles of War became in effect inoperative, the
sovereign was empowered to make rules of procedure, having the
force of law, to regulate the administration of the act in many
matters formerly dealt with by the Articles of War. These rules,
however, must not be inconsistent with the provisions of the Army
Act itself, and must be laid before parliament immediately after
they are made. Thus in 1879 the government and discipline of the
army became for the first time completely subject either to the
direct action or the close supervision of parliament.
A further notable change took place at the same time. The Mutiny
Act had been brought into force on each occasion for one year only,
in compliance with the constitutional theory:
that the maintenance of a standing army in time of
peace, unless with the consent of parliament, is against law. Each
session therefore the text of the act had to be passed through both
Houses clause by clause and line by line. The Army Act, on the
other hand, is a fixed permanent code. But constitutional
traditions are fully respected by the insertion in it of a section
providing that it shall come into force only by virtue of an annual
act of parliament. This annual act recites the illegality of a
standing army in time of peace unless with the consent of
parliament, and the necessity nevertheless of maintaining a certain
number of land forces (exclusive of those serving in India) and a
body of royal marine forces on shore, and of keeping them in exact
discipline, and it brings into force the Army Act for one
year.
Sentence
Until 1998 mutiny, and another offence of failing to suppress or
report a mutiny, were each punishable with death. Section 21(5) of
the
Human Rights Act 1998
completely abolished the
death penalty in the
United Kingdom. (Prior to this, the death penalty had already
been abolished for murder, but it had remained in force for certain
military offences and
treason, although no
executions had been carried out for several decades.) This
provision was not required by the
European Convention on Human
Rights, since Protocol 6 of the Convention permitted the death
penalty in time of war, and Protocol 13, which prohibits the death
penalty for all circumstances, did not then exist.
The UK government introduced section 21(5) as a
late amendment in response to parliamentary pressure.
United States
The
United
States’ Uniform Code of Military
Justice defines mutiny thus:
- Art. 94. (§ 894.)
2004 Mutiny or Sedition.
- (a) Any person subject to this code (chapter) who—
- :(1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military
authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey
orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or
disturbance is guilty of mutiny;
- :(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of
lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person,
revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is
guilty of sedition;
- :(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or
sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all
reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or
commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has
reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to
suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.
- (b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny,
sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition
shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a
court-martial may direct.
U.S. military law requires obedience only to lawful orders.
Disobedience to unlawful orders is the
obligation of every member of the U.S. armed forces, a principle
established by the Nuremberg trials and reaffirmed in the aftermath of the My Lai Massacre. However, a U.S. soldier who disobeys an
order after deeming it unlawful will almost certainly be
court-martialed to determine whether the disobedience was proper.
In addition, simple refusal to obey is not mutiny, which requires
collaboration or conspiracy to disobedience.
Famous mutinies
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
- The
Indian rebellion of
1857 was a period of armed uprising in India against
British colonial
power, and was popularly remembered in Britain as the Indian Mutiny
or Sepoy Mutiny. It is remembered in India as the First War
of Independence.
- The USS Sharon, a New
England whaler, was subject to multiple mass desertions, mutinies,
and the murder and dismemberment of a cruel (and from the record,
sociopathic) captain by four
Polynesians who had been pressed into
service on the Sharon.
- The brig USS Somers
had a mutiny plotted onboard on her first voyage. Three men were
accused of conspiring to commit mutiny, and were hanged.
20th century
- Mutiny
aboard the Russian
battleship Potemkin, a rebellion of the crew
against their officers in June 1905 during the Russian Revolution of 1905. It
was made famous by the film The Battleship Potemkin.
- Curragh
Incident of July 20, 1914 occurred in the Curragh, Ireland, where
British soldiers protested against
enforcement of the Home Rule Act
1914.
- French Army
mutinies in 1917. The failure of the Nivelle Offensive in April and May 1917
resulted in widespread mutiny in many units of the French
Army.
- Wilhelmshaven mutiny broke out
in the German High Seas Fleet on 29 October 1918.
The
mutiny was one of the factors leading to the end of the First World War, to the collapse of the
Monarchy and to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
- Black Sea
mutiny by crews aboard the French dreadnoughts -
Jean
Bart and France - sent to assist the
White Russians in the Russian Civil
War. The ringleaders (including André Marty and Charles Tillon) received long prison
sentences.
- Kronstadt
rebellion was an unsuccessful uprising of Soviet
sailors, led by Stepan
Petrichenko, against the government of the early Russian SFSR in the first weeks of March in
1921. It proved to be the last major rebellion against Bolshevik rule.
- Invergordon
Mutiny was an industrial
action by around a thousand sailors in
the British Atlantic Fleet,
that took place on 15-16 September 1931. For two days, ships
of the Royal Navy at Invergordon were in open mutiny, in one of the few military
strikes in British
history.
- Cocos Islands Mutiny was a
failed mutiny by Sri
Lankan servicemen on the then-British Cocos
Islands during the Second World
War.
- Port Chicago mutiny on August 9, 1944, three weeks after the
Port Chicago disaster, 258 out of the 320 African-American sailors
in the ordnance battalion refused to load any
ammunition.
- Sonderborg Denmark
mutiny on May 5, 1945 German sailors took over German
minesweeper {M612} the day before; arrested and 11 executed. See
[10802].
After World War II
Notes
See also
Sources and External links