The Oklahoma Bar Journal February 2025

Additionally, stare decisis is followed in military courts, which mostly relies upon their own prec edents from their service branch courts, 13 and the next-in-line appel late court, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), 14 and, of course, the precedential opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court. Other helpful (and often necessary) sources include regu lations issued by the Department of Defense or service secretary, 15 military law review articles 16 and court decisions. 17 Over time, there have been misconceptions of the military criminal justice system – that members of our armed forces do not enjoy the same constitutional protections they are sworn to

governed the Army, the Navy operated from a completely differ ent system known as the Articles for the Government of the Navy (or Rocks and Shoals). When the armed services unified under the Department of Defense in 1947, efforts began for a uniform code that would jointly cover each of the armed service branches. 11 The UCMJ 12 was enacted and signed into law in May 1950, with the MCM follow ing in 1951. After the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, there were major revisions to the MCM in 1969 and again in 1983 with the Military Justice Act and executive order by President Ronald Reagan in the adoption of the MCM in 1984, with annual revisions being made.

As with any system of law, the primary source is the statute itself; military law is codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ or code). This is complemented by the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM or man ual). 7 Courts-martial are courts of special and limited jurisdic tion that derive their authority from the U.S. Constitution, 8 the UCMJ, the MCM 9 and customary international law and treaties. The genesis of our system was the Articles of War, which were derived from the British Code of 1765. 10 It was revised in 1806, again during the War of 1812 and the Seminole Wars, again in 1874, and it was completely overhauled in 1917. While the Articles of War

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL