Brittany Warren · June 2012
80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1255 (2012)
Human trafficking is a long-recognized problem with global implications. Officially, the U.S. Government has a “zero-tolerance” policy for human trafficking. To that end, the United States has enacted a variety of legislation since 2000 to combat human trafficking both at home and abroad. The over 600,000 individuals who are trafficked each year, however, are evidence that these laws are insufficient. Specifically, the current legal framework leaves significant jurisdictional, evidentiary, and motivational hurdles when it comes to applying that framework to crimes committed by civilian contractors abroad. In 2007, article 2(a)(10) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ”) was amended to explicitly provide courts-martial jurisdiction over all civilian personnel accompanying troops abroad in support of a Department of Defense mission, whether that mission is war or a contingency operation. Congress should further amend the UCMJ’s punitive articles to reach conduct that might otherwise fall through the gaps in existing antitrafficking laws. This Note sets out a proposed punitive article that, by operating concurrently with existing federal law, gives true effect to the U.S. Government’s zero-tolerance policy.
