The February 24a few hours after the invasion ofUkraine by the Russian forces, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announces the imposition of martial law with a brief statement to the nation shared on the web: “Dear Ukrainian citizens, today the president Putin started amilitary operation special in our country. Russia has carried out attacks on our military infrastructure, ”Zelensky said. “I’ve already had an interview with the president Usa Joe Biden. The United States has already begun to mobilize international support – added the Ukrainian leader -. You have to stay at home if possible ”.
But what is the martial law? It is a government system in which the read ordinarily in force in a state come temporarily suspended e i military courts take the control of the normal administration of the justice. Its name derives from Mars, ancient god revered above all as a divinity of war. It can take effect when a country is in war or for exceptional public order needs – for example one natural disaster or an attempt to Revolution – and even after a military coup, in which a state is established dictatorship of a military nature. The rules governing martial law vary from country to country. Anyway in general reduces Some of rights normally guaranteed to citizens: the duration of processes and they are prescribed more severe penalties compared to ordinary law. In some states, martial law also provides for death penalty for some crimes, even if ordinary laws do not recognize such punishment in their system.
Governments during world wars almost immediately instituted martial law, which however did not undermine the entire legal system: it mainly concerned the deserters, i draft dodgers and the spies. Mussolininell’Italy of 1943 – divided between Republic of Salò to the north and Allied occupation to the south – to avoid mass rebellions or escapes and swell the ranks of the soldiers of the Italian Social Republic as much as possible, he established martial laws through special courts that had to judge the different cases from time to time. In recent decades it has been applied in Poland between 1981 and the 1983, when the government set it up to crack down on opposition from the Solidarnosc, in China In the 1989 during the protests of Tiananmen Square and in 2014 in Thailand after the military coup. In 2018 was introduced right in Ukraine during the tensions with Russia in the Kerch Strait. In 2020 Armenia e Azerbaijan they proclaimed martial law during the war of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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