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judge advocate

judge advocate

4 7.4
An officer in the military who gives legal advice and handles law for soldiers
  • noun
  • /ˈdʒʌdʒ ˈædvəˌkeɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : abogado militar
  • The judge advocate provided legal advice during the military trial.
  • judge advocate general
  • military judge advocate

Examples

  • I'd also ask the trial judge advocate to rise, if he would.

  • Each base has its own police force and its own judge advocate.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Please, the Court, is the judge advocate honestly asking this witness to testify as to how the defendant felt on August 6th?

    Fiction book (1992)
  • In the military, servicemembers may request any active duty judge advocate to represent them, and the request must be acted upon by the military.

    Academic text (1997)
  • For 15 years, Hansen served as an Army judge advocate general and later represented accused officers in military courts as a defense attorney.

    Blog text (2)
  • Only when the requested judge advocate is deemed unavailable, due to current assignment or existing caseload, will the request be denied.

    Academic text (1997)
  • The directive also dramatically elevated the role of judge advocates in advising on, monitoring, and enforcing compliance with the laws of war.

    Academic text (2006)
  • For example, Brigadier-General Shoham, the judge advocate general, stated in 1998 that the IDF accords equal rights and duties to gay and lesbian soldiers.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In the lead-up to the invasion, the Pentagon developed the "joint target list," an inventory of all potential targets for coalition forces, which was vetted by judge advocates and other legal advisers.

    Academic text (2006)
  • The military should also establish "civilian casualties response teams," comprised of judge advocates, intelligence officers, medical personnel, forensics and munitions specialists, engineers, and information officers to study the effects of U.S. military operations on the Iraqi population.

    Academic text (2006)

Surface Forms

Morphology

judge + advocate

Both constituents ('judge' and 'advocate') clearly signal a legal professional, so a B1 learner who knows those words would likely infer this MWE refers to someone with legal duties. However, the specific institutional meaning — an armed forces legal officer — and the technical nature of the role (combining judicial/advising functions) are specialized and not fully predictable, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Judge advocate combines judge and advocate. The name was used for the officer who both gave legal advice and ran military courts, so today it means 'an officer who handles legal matters in the military'.