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A delegation of Air Force and Army judge advocates and civilian attorneys from the KMC gathered with local German legal professionals during a German-American Legal Conference May 10.
The U.S. delegation was represented by personnel from U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, U.S. Army Europe, 3rd Air Force and 21st Theater Sustainment Command legal offices. Dr. Hannes Kopf, Rheinland-Pfalz Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection undersecretary; Col. Jeff Palmer, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa staff judge advocate; and Dr. Harald Jenet, Kaiserslautern State Court president and host of the event, started the conference with opening remarks.
“We want to thank our host nation for this opportunity and, in particular, Dr. Kopf for following through with the initiative initially discussed during a visit with Gen. Frank Gorenc (USAFE-AFAFRICA commander) about a year ago,” Palmer said. “Our goal is to increase understanding and transparency with U.S. legal systems operating in Germany and also build collaboration with our legal partners here.”
After a tour of the Kaiserslautern courthouse, the team of legal professionals partook in several briefings and discussions.
Topics discussed during the conference included criminal law; jurisdiction issues, in particular concerning traffic accidents with fatalities; changes in German law concerning sexual assault; and cybercrime. Subject matter experts spoke on each respective topic.
“This was an opportunity for us to reinforce many of our relationships with local prosecutors, judges and presidents of local German courts and establish other relationships with key officials within the various jurisdictions where our Airmen and Soldiers live and work” said Col. David Penczar, 86th Airlift Wing staff judge advocate. “Having strong relationships fosters cooperation on a range of legal issues.”
Additionally, Penczar explained the mission of the 86th AW and Ramstein Law Center.
“We provided an overview of how the 86 AW legal team fits within the greater USAFE-AFAFRICA legal structure,” Penczar said.
The Ramstein Law Center is the largest Air Force legal office overseas, servicing more than 6,550 clients in 2015. Furthermore, they maintained the busiest courts-martial docket in the Air Force last year.
To conclude the daylong conference, German legal professionals toured Ramstein to see all the units, family housing area and supporting facilities. The team also visited a static display of a C-130J Super Hercules and ended with refreshments and further discussion as they toured Ramstein Law Center.
Participants said they hope to attend this conference on a yearly basis to continue to strengthen the ties and relationships between the host nation, Army and Air Force legal systems in Germany.
