What is the Uniform Commercial Code?
Commercial law (as a general topic) is the law of commerce, lex mercatoria (sometimes called the law merchant in civil law countries). It is generally regulated by the states within the United States rather than the federal government (which only regulates trade between the states and with other countries). To build a uniform body of law, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (commonly called NCCUSL) and the American Law Institute (which also drafts the various Restatements of Law) drafted the Uniform Commercial Code in 1955. It was eventually substantially adopted in all of the states within the United States. It replaced its various predecessors, such as the Uniform Sales Act, the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law and so on.
The Permanent Editorial Body (commonly called the PEB) was established by the ALI and NCCUSL to monitor the UCC. Over the past 50 years, various updates and revisions have been approved, so the Uniform Commercial Code as adopted in all of the states is not exactly uniform. However, the major articles are:
 |
Article 1 - General Provisions. |
|
Article 2 - Sale of Goods (commonly called "sales"). |
|
Article 2A - Personal Property Leasing (commonly called "leases"). |
|
Article 3 - Commercial Paper (promissory notes and drafts). |
|
Article 4 - Bank deposits and collections. |
|
Article 4A - Wire Transfers (commonly called funds transfers). |
|
Article 5 - Letters of Credit. |
|
Article 6 - Bulk transfers (which was repealed in Connecticut and a number of other states). |
|
Article 7 -Warehouse receipts, bills of lading and other documents of title. |
|
Article 8 - Investment Securities. |
|
Article 9 - Secured transactions, sales of accounts and chattel paper. |
|
Article 10 - Effective date and repealer. |
|
Article 11 - Effective date and transition provisions. |
Every sale or lease of personal property is governed by the Uniform Commercial Code. All promissory notes and drafts are generally governed by the Uniform Commercial Code. Commercial finance transactions are usually done under the Uniform Commercial Code.
Examples of some UCC cases are: Fleet National Bank v. Omni Industries, 2000 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2793 (10/10/00), Connecticut National Bank v. Judith C. Douglas et al. 221 Conn. 530 (1992), Dick Warner Cargo Handling Corp. v. Aetna Business Credit, Inc. 746 F.2d 126 (2nd Cir. 1984). Thomas J. Welsh's book on Connecticut Secured Transactions (co-authored with Ed Weiss and Elizabeth Yen) was published and can be ordered now. We also maintain a web page on our Article 9 activities.