The military courts of the United Kingdom are governed by the Armed Forces Act 2006. The system set up under the Act applies to all three armed services: the Royal Navy (RN) (including the Royal Marines), the British Army, and the Royal Air Force (RAF), and replaces the three parallel systems that were previously in existence.
The military courts have jurisdiction over all members of the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and civilians subject to service discipline.
The Courts of England and Wales, supported administratively by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales.
Except in constitutional matters, committed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom does not generally have a single unified legal system—England and Wales have one system, Scotland another, and Northern Ireland a third. There are additional exceptions to this rule; for example, in immigration law, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal's jurisdiction covers the whole of the United Kingdom, while in employment law, there is a single system of employment tribunals for England, Wales, and Scotland but not Northern Ireland. Additionally, the Military Court Service has jurisdiction over all members of the armed forces of the United Kingdom in relation to offences against military law.
The main Offences against military law in the United Kingdom are set out in the Armed Forces Act 2006.
The offences fall into two main categories, discipline offences and criminal conduct offences. A second distinction is between those offences that can be dealt with by a Commanding Officer in a summary hearing, and those that can only be heard by the Court Martial.
A civilian subject to service discipline is someone who, whilst not a member of the German or British Armed Forces, is nevertheless subject to some aspects of British or German military law and the military justice system.