Military Justice Act of 2016 Training for Commanding Officers with Court-Martial Convening Authority
This MARADMIN directs all Marine Corps commanders with general or special court-martial convening authority to receive mandatory in-person training from their Staff Judge Advocate on the Military Justice Act of 2016 changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The training must be completed by 31 December 2018, before the new UCMJ changes take effect on 1 January 2019.
Issued: November 5, 2018
1. This MARADMIN directs all commanders with general or special court-martial convening authority to receive training from the cognizant Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) on the changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) imposed by the Military Justice Act of 2016 (MJA), as contained in the references. 2. The MJA contains the most significant changes to the UCMJ in over sixty years. This includes an amendment to Article 137, UCMJ, which requires officers with authority to convene general or special courts-martial or to administer non-judicial punishment (NJP) to receive training on the purpose and administration of the UCMJ. All commanders have an obligation to understand the MJA changes before they take effect on 1 January 2019. 3. Commanders with general or special court-martial convening authority shall receive in-person training conducted by their cognizant SJA no later than Monday, 31 December 2018. 4. Commanders with the authority to convene general or special courts-martial will incorporate the in-person training into regular unit training to ensure subordinate commanders with the authority to administer NJP are aware of the changes to the UCMJ and able to administer NJP correctly. 5. Commanders will ensure administrative personnel officers and unit legal personnel attend unit training on the changes to the UCMJ to ensure the proper administrative processing of courts-martial and NJP. 6. Training materials related to the MJA are posted on the following webpage: https:(slash)(slash)www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/mja16-convening-authority-training. To access this website Marines will need to paste the URL into their browser once to use their CAC E-mail Certificates to login to the milsuite homepage, and then a second time to access the specific webpage. 7. Staff Judge Advocates of the MARFORs, MEFs, and MCICOMs will report completion of training for all convening authorities within their respective commands to Judge Advocate Division via the listed POC no later than Wednesday, 15 January 2019. 8. Release authorized by Lieutenant General Michael G. Dana, Director, Marine Corps Staff.