Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971

Offences - Offences involving guard duty, violence, and insubordination

38: Disobeying a lawful command

You could also call this:

"Breaking a lawful order from a superior officer is against the law"

Illustration for Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971

You commit an offence if you disobey a lawful command from your superior officer. You can be imprisoned for up to 5 years for this offence. Your superior officer can give you the command in any way. If you are charged with disobeying a command, you can defend yourself if you can prove you did not know the person giving the command was your superior officer. You also need to prove you had no reason to believe they were your superior officer. This is your defence against the charge.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM402711.

This page was last updated on 1 January 2026 — View changes

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37: Obstruction of provost officers, or

"Blocking or Refusing to Help a Provost Officer is Against the Law"

39: Failure to comply with written orders, or

"Not following rules you know about or should know about"

Part 2Offences
Offences involving guard duty, violence, and insubordination

38Disobeying a lawful command

Every person subject to this Act commits an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, who disobeys a lawful command of his superior officer by whatever means communicated to him.
In any proceedings in respect of a charge for an offence against subsection (1), it is a defence to the charge if the accused proves that he neither knew nor had reasonable cause to believe that the person against whom the offence was alleged to have been committed was his superior officer.

Notes

Section 38(2): added, on 1 January 1986, by section 15 of the Armed Forces Discipline Amendment Act 1985 (1985 No 199).