The US Constitution gives Congress the privilege to direct land and ocean powers in Article 1, Section 8. Yet, how could we get from that point to the contemporary Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that we have today?
The United States Congress initially established laws for controlling the military in 1806 known as the Articles of War. These were a refresh to the Articles of War given by the Second Continental Congress in 1775. The Articles of War generally referred to the Army; the Navy partner code was the Articles for the Government of the United State Navy, informally alluded to as “Rocks and Shoals.” While the Articles of War would get significant corrections in 1916, 1920, and 1948, the Navy code remained to a great extent unaltered. The two Articles would be supplanted in 1950 by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, marked into law by President Harry S. Truman. It is called “uniform” because it now applies to all branches of the military.
Since its origin, the UCMJ has developed further, frequently in parallel to non-military personnel law.
On occasion, the Uniform Code of Military Justice has even foreseen changes that would later apply to civilian laws. For example, the military framework had a rights explanation similar to the Miranda cautioning fifteen years prior to that of the Supreme Court’s requirement that came about in Miranda v. Arizona.
The UCMJ last got a noteworthy redesign in 2012, refreshing the code to incorporate presidential changes and those commanded by the National Defense Authorization Acts of 2006 and 2007.