Fog of War: Breaker Morant's Shadow | Tony Taouk

About this episode

Adam Shand discusses the legal complexities surrounding the prosecutions of Australian soldiers in war with lawyer Tony Taouk.

More than a century separates them, but the cases of Harry "Breaker" Morant and Ben Roberts-Smith share a troubling echo — Australian soldiers prosecuted for killings carried out in the fog of war, on foreign soil, in conflicts already morally compromised by the powers that sent them there. Adam Shand sits down with Sydney lawyer Tony Taouk of Magna Carta Lawyers, whose essay in Lawyers Weekly drew a compelling parallel between the two prosecutions. From the chaos of the Boer War to the mountains of Afghanistan, Tony unpacks why applying civilian criminal law to battlefield conduct is one of the most difficult — and consequential — legal challenges Australia now faces. How do you prove intent when decisions are made in seconds under fire? How do you reconstruct events from 14 years ago with no crime scene, no forensics, and immunity witnesses who were allegedly there when it happened? And when a prosecution feels politically expedient, does it risk creating the very martyr it seeks to hold accountable? Real Tony's Essay in Lawyers Weekly Here: https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/sme-law/44239-when-the-battlefield-enters-the-courtroom-the-roberts-smith-prosecution…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Shand

Guest: Tony Taouk

Topics covered

• military law
• war crimes
• legal challenges
• Australian soldiers
• prosecution
• battlefield conduct

Keywords

• Breaker Morant
• Ben Roberts-Smith
• military prosecution
• war ethics
• legal implications
• battlefield law
• intent in warfare

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Magna Carta Lawyers, Lawyers Weekly

Places: Australia

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