Uniform Code of Military Justice Legislative History

In its endeavor to create an extensive and readily accessible internet site dedicated to military legal resources, the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library in Charlottesville, VA, has focused this part of the site on a comprehensive legislative history of one of the principal documents of military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is a federal law enacted by Congress; it may be cited as United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 47. In addition to the full text of the 1950 edition of the UCMJ, this website — produced by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division (FRD) — will provide many related and supporting historical materials that not only document the development of the UCMJ, but that can also be used to argue legislative intent. Hence this resource can be an invaluable tool for lawyers and legal scholars involved in the nation’s war on terrorism.

The 1912 Comparison of Proposed New Articles of War with the Present Articles of War and Other Related Statutes and the 1916 Revision of the Articles of War: Hearing before a Subcommittee... are the first two documents in this UCMJ project to appear on this website. Other documents, which will be added to this page as they are converted to digital format, include the Crowder-Ansell dispute resulting in the 1920 revision of the Articles of War, the 1946-1948 Elston Act amendments to the Articles of War, the Military Justice Act of 1968, the Military Justice Act of 1983, and all subsequent amendments that Congress has made to the UCMJ.

For more information see the Legislative Summary of the UCMJ.