2022 Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States

The order directs that Parts II and IV of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, be amended as specified in an attached Annex. The Manual for Courts-Martial is the comprehensive rulebook governing military criminal law and procedure under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The amendments take effect on the date of signing.

The order includes two scope limits: it cannot be used to punish any act that was not already punishable before the order's effective date, and it does not invalidate or disrupt any nonjudicial punishment proceeding, investigation, referral of charges, trial, or other action that was already underway. Those prior proceedings continue under the rules in effect when they began. The specific content of the amendments is contained in a multi-page Annex that was published as image-only graphics in the Federal Register and is not readable in this text.

Active-duty military personnel, reservists, and other individuals subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice who face or are involved in courts-martial proceedings. Military judges, trial counsel, defense counsel, and commanders exercising nonjudicial punishment authority are also directly affected.

Changes to the Manual for Courts-Martial alter the procedural and substantive rules under which service members are prosecuted, defended, and punished. Updates can affect what conduct is chargeable, what evidence is admissible, and what sentences are available in military criminal cases.

The amendments take effect immediately upon signing with no phase-in period. A grandfather clause protects proceedings already in progress: any nonjudicial punishment, investigation, referral of charges, or trial in which arraignment occurred before the signing date proceeds under the prior rules, as if the amendments had not been made. No agency reporting requirements or further implementing steps are specified in the readable text.