The UCMJ as Federal Statute: Title 10, Sections 801 to 946a

The Uniform Code of Military Justice has two numbering systems, and every citation to it uses one or the other. It is chapter 47 of Title 10 of the United States Code, running from section 801 to section 946a, and the same provisions are also numbered as Articles 1 through 146a. Article 31 and 10 U.S.C. 831 are the same text.

This page is about the statute as a document: how the two numbers relate, how the chapter is divided, where each kind of provision sits, and how to read the notes that follow each section. Those notes are where the enactment date, the amendment history and the drafting changes live, and they answer questions no summary can.

It does not explain any article’s content. Each of those has its own page, and this page is the map.

The two numbering systems

Every provision has a section number and an article number, and the offset is constant: section = article + 800.

Article 2 is 10 U.S.C. 802. Article 31 is 10 U.S.C. 831. Article 146a is 10 U.S.C. 946a. The Code prints both, and the section headings show it: §831. Article 31. Compulsory self-incrimination prohibited.

The offset holds through the lettered provisions as well. Article 24a is section 824a; Article 53a is section 853a; Article 60a is section 860a. A letter appended to an article number means a provision inserted after the original numbering was fixed, and it appears with the same letter in the section number.

Which number to use depends on the audience rather than on correctness. Military practice cites articles; federal legal citation cites sections.

How the chapter is divided

Chapter 47 has twelve subchapters, and the order is the order of a case.

I     GENERAL PROVISIONS
  II    APPREHENSION AND RESTRAINT
  III   NON-JUDICIAL PUNISHMENT
  IV    COURT-MARTIAL JURISDICTION
  V     COMPOSITION OF COURTS-MARTIAL
  VI    PRE-TRIAL PROCEDURE
  VII   TRIAL PROCEDURE
  VIII  SENTENCES
  IX    POST-TRIAL PROCEDURE AND REVIEW OF COURTS-MARTIAL
  X     PUNITIVE ARTICLES
  XI    MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
  XII   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ARMED FORCES

Source: the subchapter headings of 10 U.S.C. chapter 47, as printed in the United States Code.

Two things about that structure are worth reading off it.

Subchapter III sits before jurisdiction. Non-judicial punishment under Article 15 is placed ahead of the court-martial provisions, which reflects that it is an alternative to them rather than a stage within them.

The offenses are in subchapter X, near the end. The bulk of the chapter is machinery: who is covered, who convenes, who sits, how a trial runs, what happens afterwards. The punitive articles are one subchapter among twelve.

Where to look for a given kind of question

The subchapter titles do most of the routing, and the pattern is consistent.

Am I covered? Subchapter I. Article 2 lists who is subject to the chapter, and Article 5 states that the chapter “applies in all places.” See personal jurisdiction.

Can this forum try this? Subchapter IV. Articles 18, 19 and 20 give each forum its reach and its punishment ceiling.

Who sits, and how many? Subchapter V. Articles 25, 26 and 29 cover eligibility, the military judge and impanelling.

What happens before trial? Subchapter VI, Articles 30 through 35, which is the sequence set out in what happens before a court-martial.

What happens at trial? Subchapter VII. Articles 39, 46, 51 and 52 cover sessions, evidence-gathering, rulings and votes.

What can be imposed? Subchapter VIII, Articles 56 through 58b.

What comes after? Subchapter IX, Articles 60 through 76.

The notes after each section, and why they matter

Each section in the United States Code is followed by material that is not part of the operative text but answers questions the text cannot.

The enactment line. A parenthetical naming the act and the Statutes at Large page. Article 31’s reads (Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 48.), which is the 1956 recodification of Title 10.

The amendment chain, and its limit. For frequently amended articles this is the longest part of the entry. But the chain carries a warning of its own: it is current only to the edition that printed it. Article 2’s chain in the 2023 edition runs from 1959 to Pub. L. 118-31, div. A, title XVII, §1722(f)(1), Dec. 22, 2023, and reading its end is the fastest way to check whether a description of the Code is current.

Historical and Revision Notes. These trace each subsection to its source in the 1950 Act and record drafting changes made at recodification. Article 31’s entry traces to May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art 31), 64 Stat. 118, and then records: “The word ‘may’ is substituted for the word ‘shall’ throughout the revised section.”

That last kind of note is the one to know about. It tells you when a wording difference between an old text and the current one is deliberate and non-substantive, which is otherwise impossible to tell from the text alone.

Two numbering traps

A section number is not an article number. Someone who reads “section 32” and looks for Article 32 will land on 10 U.S.C. 832, which is Article 32. But someone who reads “Article 832” has misread a section number as an article.

Internal cross-references use both. The Code’s own text names the section and then the article in parentheses: Article 16 refers to “sections 825(e)(3) and 829 of this title (articles 25(e)(3) and 29)”. When following a cross-reference, the parenthetical is the article number.

What this page does not decide

What any article means. This page describes the statute’s architecture, not its content.

Whether a version you are reading is current. The amendment chain shows the last amendment as printed; the printed edition itself has a date.

What is in the Manual for Courts-Martial. The Manual is a presidential regulation under Article 36, not part of the chapter, and it is covered in the Manual for Courts-Martial.

Where to go from here

For what the Code is and who lives under it, see the Uniform Code of Military Justice. For what it replaced, the Articles of War, and for the amendments the chains record, how military justice was reformed.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. chapter 47 · the Code in full · the twelve subchapter headings quoted above, every section with its article number, and the enactment lines, amendment chains and revision notes described here
• 10 U.S.C. 831 · Article 31 · the worked example of a section heading carrying both numbers
• 10 U.S.C. 802 · Article 2 · the amendment chain ending 22 December 2023

What this page did not open. The punitive articles in subchapter X were not analysed. The Manual for Courts-Martial was not opened. No court decision was opened. The printed edition used here is the 2023 edition of the United States Code; a later edition may carry further amendments.

Checked on 19 September 2026, and checked for currency as well as for accuracy. Every statutory provision cited on this page was traced to the current United States Code: where a provision has not been amended since the 2023 edition, that edition’s text is the current text and its amendment record was read to confirm it; where a provision was amended by Pub. L. 118–159 (23 December 2024) or Pub. L. 119–60 (18 December 2025), the current text is quoted above and the amending Act is named beside it. The two Acts’ own texts were read to establish the complete list of provisions in this chapter that they changed. This was done through the Cornell mirror of the Code and through the Acts as published by the Government Publishing Office; the House preliminary Code could not be reached from here, so no third source confirms it. No independent expert review has taken place yet, and this page says so rather than implying one.