Contracts/Uniform Commercial Code

The Uniform Commercial Code is one of the Uniform Acts that attempts to harmonise the law of the fifty U.S. states in the United States of America. It treats the law of sales and commercial transactions in the United States. This was the first of the Uniform Acts to be proposed, and is the longest and most elaborate such act.

The Uniform Commercial Code, in one or another of its several amendments, has been enacted in 49 of the 50 States. Louisiana, the sole holdout, has enacted most of the Code, but that state's different legal terminology and legal traditions make it difficult to harmonise the whole Code with the remaining body of Louisiana law.

The Uniform Commercial Code deals with the following subjects under consecutively numbered Articles:

1. General provisions, (including most definitions and rules for interpretation);
2. Sales;
3. Commercial paper, (including negotiable instruments, the validity of endorsements, and the rights of subsequent holders);
4. Bank deposits;
5. Letters of credit;
6. Bulk transfers, (which discusses the sale of an entire business);
7. Warehouse receipts;
8. Investment securities;
9. Secured transactions (liens and security interests in chattel property);

See also: commercial law;