抄録
This article provides an analysis of the legal framework of the military-industry complex in the United States, especially an inner circle comprised of the U.S. government and the large military companies, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Northrop-Grumman and General Dynamics.
The United States v. Reynolds decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 1953 introduced common law state secrets privilege as an evidence rule to allow the government to reject production of documents and other evidences at the trial. The case law of Reynolds has been well adopted in the legal system in the U.S. in that many cases cited Reynolds and resulted in dismissal of the cases mainly against the government, but also against the companies.
Furthermore, at General Dynamics v. United States in 2007 SCOTUS declared that the most important secrets, such as stealth technology, should be exempted from judicial review as such, like the “political questions” or contracts with espionage agents, so that the confidentiality should be protected even from attorneys and judges.
As a result, not only the government, but also major military companies are protected from actions in contract, tort or otherwise raised by third parties including employees and injured by accidents. On the other hand, such major companies need to be large enough as they cannot rely on judicial remedies, but can only count on their own role of “repeat players” as stated in the decision of the SCOTUS. Such a legal framework provides the basis for forming the inner circle comprised of the government and major military companies [called as the “military-industry complex.”
