A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial

Court-martial

A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...

 held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term is said to originate from the use of a drumhead

Drumhead

A drumhead is a membrane stretched over one or both of the open ends of a drum. The drumhead is struck with sticks, mallets, or hands so that it vibrates and the sound resonates through the drum.-History:...

 as an improvised writing table, altar for religious services, and a traditional gathering point for a regiment for orders or decisions.

The earliest recorded usage is in an English memoir of the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

 (1807). The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice

Summary justice

Summary justice refers to the trial and punishment of suspected offenders without recourse to a more formal and protracted trial under the legal system...

, with an implied lack of judicial impartiality, as noted in the transcripts of the trial at Nuremberg of Josef Bühler

Josef Bühler

Josef Bühler was a Nazi war criminal, secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi-controlled General Government in Kraków during World War II.- Background :...

. According to Bryant

Arthur Bryant

Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, CH, CBE , was a British historian and a columnist for the Illustrated London News. His books included studies of Samuel Pepys, accounts of English eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, and a life of George V...

, such courts-martial have ordered lashings

Flagellation

Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...

 or hanging

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

s to punish soldiers (and their officers

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

) who were cowardly, disobedient – or, conversely, acted rashly; and especially as a discouragement to drunkenness

Drunkenness

Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....

.

In popular culture

This kind of court-martial is referenced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

episode "The Drumhead". Captain Picard

Jean-Luc Picard

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is a Star Trek character portrayed by Patrick Stewart. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis...

compares the investigation by Admiral Norah Satie to a drumhead trial.