This article focuses on the long-standing debate over the purpose and functions of the American military justice system and whether the system is intended to provide for good order and discipline or to provide justice. The author provides a summary of the current procedures and practices in that legal system and discusses the roles of commanders and armed forces attorneys. He addresses the various thematic approaches which have been used to describe the relationship between justice and discipline and applies a crime-control and due process model to various features of the military justice system. He concludes that the system was originally designed in the 1770’s to enforce discipline and that on the whole, the current procedures and policies continue that approach.