Article 37 of the Ucmj and Command Responsibility for War Crimes – Unlawful Command Influence as (rogue) Elephant in the Room Wm

Federal law that codifies military criminal procedure provides that “[n]o person subject to this chapter may attempt to coerce or, by any unauthorized means, influence the action of a court-martial . . . or the action of any convening, approving, or reviewing authority with respect to his judicial acts.”2 This section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) statutorily limits the reach of superior uniformed authorities with regard to military court actions.3 It also sketches the outline of a specter which recurrently haunts military justice known as unlawful command influence.4 The many authorized means by which commanders and others subject to the UCMJ may influence courts-martial are carefully laid out in the statute itself, the rules for courts-martial, the manual for courts-martial and Department of Defense instructions and service specific justice regulations.