戒嚴的意義在於面臨外敵內變之際，停止正常的法律規定，必要時亦得將一部分或全部的行政事務及司法事務委由軍事管轄之。故戒嚴的本質，即是對於全國局部區域或全部區域，實施兵力警戒之意，此乃具有戰時警備之性質。又自古以來，戰時警備即是遂行作戰任務的一種手段，據此，戰時戒嚴係屬軍事統帥行為，具有高度排除國家其他機關干涉之特質。同時此際，戒嚴地軍隊司令官，為維持兵力警戒之必要，得依法將特定刑事犯罪納入軍事機關審判，以及在戒嚴地域內亦得行使行政特別警察之權限。本論文係針對日本明治時期的戒嚴法制實施比較研究，藉以探究戒嚴法令之真諦，除此之外，我國現行戒嚴法大部分是移植與繼受日本明治戒嚴法制，故研究日本明治戒嚴法，其意義即如同是探討我國現行戒嚴法之規範。

The significance of Martial Law is to stop the implementation of normal law when facing foreign aggression and internal mutiny. If necessary, some or all of the administrative and judicial affairs may be appointed under military jurisdiction. Therefore, the essence of Martial Law is to impose military vigilance in partial areas or all areas of the country, and this is the nature of wartime security. Since ancient times, wartime security has been a means of carrying out combat missions. Accordingly, wartime Martial Law is a military command behavior, and has the characteristics of highly excluding the qualities of other national organizations to intervene. At the same time, commander of the Martial Law district to maintain the necessary military vigilance, a specific criminal offense can be tried in military organs according to law, and can execute the authority of the special administrative police in the Martial Law area. This paper is a comparative study on the implementation of Martial Law during Japanese Meiji era, in order to explore the true meaning of Martial Law. In addition, the current Martial Law in our country is mainly transplanted and received from the Japanese Meiji Martial Law. Therefore, studying the Meiji Martial Law in Japan is like exploring the norms of the current Martial Law in our country.