10 U.S.C. § 817
Section 817 · Art. 17. Jurisdiction of courts-martial in general
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Brown v. McNamara (1967)
Most recently applied in Rushing, Brandon Gene (October 2011)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Each armed force has court-martial jurisdiction over all persons subject to this chapter. The exercise of jurisdiction by one armed force over personnel of another armed force shall be in accordance with regulations prescribed by the President.
(b) In all cases, departmental review after that by the officer with authority to convene a general court-martial for the command which held the trial, where that review is required under this chapter, shall be carried out by the department that includes the armed force of which the accused is a member.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
817(b) 50:577(a).50:577(b). May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art. 17), 64 Stat. 114. In subsection (a), the word “has” is substituted for the words “shall have”.
In subsection (b), the word “after” is substituted for the words “subsequent to”. The words “the provisions of” are omitted as surplusage. The words “department that includes the” are inserted before the words “armed force”, since the review is carried out by the department and not by the armed force.
Cross References
Jurisdiction of—
General courts-martial, see section 818 of this title.
Special courts-martial, see section 819 of this title.
Summary courts-martial, see section 820 of this title.