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Collection Military Legal Resources

Uniform Code of Military Justice (1946-1951)

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) took effect in 1951 and the foundation for military law in the United States. Included here are the precursor studies, the Elston Act, and the papers of Edmund M. Morgan, the chair of the committee to draft the new UCMJ.

Report of War Department Advisory Committee on Military Justice [Vanderbilt Report]

On March 25, 1946, pursuant to War Department Memorandum No. 25-46, the War Department Advisory Committee on Military Justice was established in the Office of the Secretary of War. Chaired by Arthur T. Vanderbilt, the Committee’s function was to “study the administration of military justice within the Army and the Army’s courts-martial system, and to make recommendations to the Secretary of War as to changes in existing laws, regulations, and practices which the Committee considers necessary or appropriate to improve the administration of military justice in the Army.” In conducting  its study, the Committee received testimony from numerous senior military officials at hearings conducted in Washington, DC, and collected additional testimony at regional public hearings held in ten major United States cities. The committee reviewed this testimony, the content of hundreds of letters, the results of a questionnaire sent to officers and enlisted men, as well as voluminous statistical and result studies by the Judge Advocate General’s Department. On December 13, 1946, the Committee submitted its final report to the Secretary of War.

The Elston Act (H.R. 2575)

In 1948, the United States Congress passed the statute commonly known as the Elston Act, which was a comprehensive revision of the Articles of War and which also served as the precursor to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (Act of June 24, 1948, ch. 625, tit. II, § 203, 62 Stat. 604, 628.) The full text of H.Rep.No. 80-1034, which is the report that accompanied the Elston Act, is linked below. Other related documents also linked below include statements by the Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, and various full committee and subcommittee hearings.

UCMJ Drafting

In 1948, in response to the demand for a uniform system of courts-martial for the military services, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal appointed a committee to draft a Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Harvard Law Professor Edmund M. Morgan chaired this committee, which also included Gordon Gray (Assistant Secretary of the Army), W. John Kenney (Under Secretary of the Navy), Eugene M. Zuckert (Assistant Secretary of the Air Force), and Felix E. Larkin (Assistant General Counsel, Office of the Secretary of Defense). In January 1949, the committee completed the draft and sent it to Secretary Forrestal for review, whereupon it was delivered to Capitol Hill on February 8, 1949. The full text of the "Morgan Draft" with references and commentary is linked below.

Selected Papers of Edmund M. Morgan, Regarding the Drafting of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (1948-1949)

In the summer of 1948, in response to a need for a uniform military justice system in the newly reorganized and expanded post-World War II defense establishment, Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal appointed a committee to draft a uniform code of military justice (UCMJ). Secretary Forrestal selected Gordon Gray (Assistant Secretary of the Army), W. John Kenney (Under Secretary of the Navy), and Eugene M. Zuckert (Assistant Secretary of the Air Force) for the committee. He also selected Felix E. Larkin (Assistant General Counsel, Office of the Secretary of Defense) as Executive Secretary to this committee—known as the "Forrestal Committee"—and appointed Harvard Law professor Edmund Morris Morgan, Jr. (1879-1966) as chair.

The Edmund M. Morgan Papers in the Harvard Law School Library cover the period 1925-1949 and represent his work on several national committees, plus his career teaching at Harvard. Included in this collection are seven volumes of materials that Professor Morgan collected while serving as chair of the Forrestal Committee on the UCMJ. All these items have been digitized and are now accessible in full text below. The digitization of the Morgan Papers and their addition to the Military Legal Resources site is a joint project of the Harvard Law School Library, The Judge Advocate General's School Library, and The Library of Congress.

List of Morgan Papers Collection

Volume I

Volume II

Comparative Studies Notebook(includes studies 1-121)

Volume III

Volume IV

Volume V

Volume VI

Volume VII

A listing of all items tagged with Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).