The Need for the Uniform Commercial Code

       The Uniform Commercial Code was borne out of necessity, which was itself partly driven by better transportation and improvement in services presented by transportation.  For example, the idea of shipping perishable goods for long distances was not feasible when transportation was limited and refrigerated carriers nonexistent.  As transportation and related services became more sophisticated, the potential to establish new markets which transcended local and even regional boundaries grew enormously.  This was of course, not limited to perishables, but was equally linked to improvements in transportation.
 

       The lack of certainty as to state of the law in the various jurisdictions was inhibiting interstate transactions in goods and payment systems.  The risk of doing business in a jurisdiction that might treat the transaction totally or significantly different than what a business person was accustomed to, often made the transaction prohibitive to engage in.  This was disadvantageous to those in the commercial world seeking to expand their businesses across state lines, to banking institutions that finance those transactions, and ultimately to the consumer as well.
 

       This was the context in which the Uniform Commercial Code was borne, and represents what a positive result can be achieved when everyone has a common goal and is able to put aside certain personal preferences for the good of the whole.  The diverse business elements impacted by commercial transactions in goods and by payment systems in general, resulted in very rich and diverse drafting components for the Uniform Commercial Code. Hundreds of lawyers, businessmen and bankers were involved in the drafting process.
 

       Formal drafting of the Uniform Commercial Code began in 1942, although it was discussed for nearly ten years prior to the start of the actual drafting. Ten years after the project began, a draft was submitted to, and approved by the National Conference of   Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Law Institute  In 1954 Pennsylvania became the first state to enact the Uniform Commercial Code. Today the Uniform Commercial Code has been enacted in all fifty states.  According to Soia Mentschikoff, the Associate Chief Reporter in the overall drafting of the Code, ‘The Uniform Commercial Code is the most ambitious codification ever undertaken in the Anglo-American legal world’.