Military Legal Materials

Military Criminal Law

Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have the Power . . . [t]o provide for the organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States."
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 801 - 946. Also reprinted in Appendix A2 of the Manual for Courts-Martial.
Manual for Courts-Martial - Now printed annually by the GPO. Contains Rules for Courts-Martial, Military Rules of Evidence, punitive articles, forms, guides (scripts) for general and special courts-martial, etc. Location: Law Government Docs D 1.15:[year]. The 2002 edition is available in PDF format (all 891 pages) at www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/mcm2002.pdf. [NOTE: This is a very large file (4.46 mb) and may take a long time to load.]
Regulations - Many regulations establish additional procedures or contain provisions which can be enforced through prosecution. Regulations are available on the internet at the following sites:
- Department of Defense Directives: www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/
- Air Force Publications: www.e-publishing.af.mil/
- Army Publications: www.apd.army.mil/
- Navy Publications: http://neds.daps.dla.mil/
- Marine Publications: www.usmc.mil/directiv.nsf/web+orders
Military Justice Regulations:
- Army: Army Reg. No. 27-10, Military Justice, effective 27 May 2005, www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r27_10.pdf [PDF]
- Air Force: Air Force Instruction 51-201, ADMINISTRATION OF MILITARY JUSTICE, 26 November 2003, www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/af/51/afi51-201/afi51-201.pdf [PDF]
- Navy/Marines: MANUAL OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL (JAGMAN), 3 October 1990 (with changes), http://neds.daps.dla.mil/jag/5800_7c.pdf [PDF]
Case Law - Military defendants have an automatic right to appeal in most cases. The first level of appeal consists of the Courts of Criminal Appeal for each of the different branches of the service (the Navy and Marines have a joint court). Judges on these courts are active duty or reserve judge advocates. These courts were originally called Boards of Review and then Courts of Military Review. The highest level of appeal is the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, formerly known as the Court of Military Appeals. The Court is made up of civilian judges. Military defendants can now appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
- Courts-Martial Reports (C.M.R.) (1951 until 1975). Location: Law Government Docs D 1.29:[volume number]
- Military Justice Reporter (M.J.) (1975 - present). Location: Law unclassified. Shelved at end of the federal reporters.
- Cases can also be found on Westlaw in the Military Justice Cases (MJ) directory and on Lexis in the topic area of Military Law.
Military Court Websites:
- US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces: www.armfor.uscourts.gov/; has opinions beginning in October 1996.
- Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals: https://afcca.law.af.mil/; has published opinions beginning in 1999.
- Army Court of Criminal Appeals: www.jagcnet.army.mil/acca; has opinions beginning in 1998.
- Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals: www.jag.navy.mil/FieldOffices/NMCCA.htm; has opinions from 2004.
Treatises - The following are several useful books concerning military justice.
- Court-Martial Procedure, by Francis A. Gilligan & Fredric I. Lederer (2d ed., LEXIS Law 1999). 3 vols. + 2003 supplement. Location: Law KF 7625 .G55 1999.
- Military Criminal Justice: Practice and Procedure , by David A. Schlueter (6th ed., LexisNexis 2004). Location: Law KF 7620 .S34 2004.
- Military Criminal Procedure Forms, by David A. Schlueter et al. (2d ed., LexisNexis 2003). Location: Law KF 7620 .A65 M55 2003.
- Military Evidentiary Foundations, by David A. Schlueter et al. (2d ed., LEXIS Pub. 2000). Location: Law KF 7628 .M55 2000.
- Military Rules of Evidence Manual, by Stephen A. Saltzburg, Lee D. Schinasi, & David A. Schlueter (5th ed., LexisNexis 2003). 2 vols. Location: Law KF 7628 .S34 2003.
Articles & Other Resources
- Philip Carter, The Seven Basic Myths about Military Justice: Why It’s Much Fairer To Defendants Than You May Have Been Led to Think, available at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/student/20021218_carter.html (Dec 18, 2002).
- Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service & Estela I. Velez Pollack, Military Courts-Martial: An Overview, www.fas.org/man/crs/RS21850.pdf (May 26, 2004).

Other Military-Related Legal Issues

Veterans - Reference Books

Federal Veterans Laws, Rules and Regulations (LexisNexis 2004). Location: Law Reference KF 7709 .F31.
Veterans Benefits Manual (Barton F. Stichman, Ronald B. Abrams, & David F. Addlestone, eds., LexisNexis 2004). Location: Law Reference KF 7709 .V47.
Veteran Preference Employment Statutes: A State-by-State and Federal Government Handbook, by V.I. Brown (McFarland 2000). Location: KF 3460 .Z95 B76 2001.

Veterans - Case Law

Veterans Appeals Reporter (1992 - present). Location: Law unclassified. Shelved at end of the federal reporters.

Veterans - Websites

Department of Veterans Affairs: www.va.gov/
Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims: www.vetapp.gov/; has opinions beginning in 1989.
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA): www.law.arizona.edu/Library/internet/publications/library/guides_legal/USERRA/default.htm

Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act (USFSPA)

Pub. L. No. 97-252 § 1001 et seq., 96 Stat. 730 (1982), as amended.
Military Retirement Benefits in Divorce, by Marshal S. Willick (American Bar Association 1998). Location: Law KF 7275 .W55 1998.
Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act Bulletin: www.defenselink.mil/dfas/money/garnish/fsfact.htm
USFSPA Frequently Asked Questions and Answers: www.defenselink.mil/dfas/money/garnish/fs-qa.htm
Application for Former Spouse Payments from Retired Pay (DD Form 2293): www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/infomgt/forms/eforms/dd2293.pdf [PDF]