Editing Uniform Commercial Code (section)

== UCC articles ==
The 1952 Uniform Commercial Code was released after ten years of development, and revisions were made to the Code from 1952 to 2022.<ref name=NCCUSL />
The Uniform Commercial Code deals with the following subjects under consecutively numbered Articles:

{| class="wikitable" style="left; text-align:center; margin:1em 0 1em 1em"
|-
! Art.
! Title
! Contents
|-
! 1
| '''General Provisions'''
| Definitions, rules of [[Statutory interpretation|interpretation]]
|-
! 2
| '''Sales'''
| [[Sales]] of [[good (economics)|good]]s
|-
! 2A
| '''Leases'''
| [[Lease]]s of [[good (economics)|good]]s
|-
! 3
| '''Negotiable Instruments'''
| [[Promissory note]]s and [[cheque|drafts]] ([[commercial paper]])
|-
! 4
| '''Bank Deposits and Collections'''
| [[Bank]]s and banking, check collection process
|-
! 4A
| '''Funds Transfers'''
| Transfers of money between banks
|-
! 5
| '''Letters of Credit'''
| Transactions involving [[Letter of credit|letters of credit]]
|-
! 6
| '''Bulk Transfers and Bulk Sales'''
| [[Auction]]s and [[liquidation]]s of assets
|-
! 7
| '''Warehouse Receipts, Bills of Lading and Other Documents of Title'''
| Storage and [[bailment]] of [[good (economics)|good]]s
|-
! 8
| '''Investment Securities'''
| [[Security (finance)|Securities]] and [[financial asset]]s
|-
! 9
| '''Secured Transactions'''
| Transactions secured by [[security interest]]s
|-
!12
| '''Controllable Electronic Records (CERs)'''
| Transactions involving [[digital asset]]s
|}

In 2003, amendments to Article 2 modernizing many aspects (as well as changes to Article 2A and Article 7) were proposed by the NCCUSL and the ALI.  Because no states adopted the amendments and, due to industry opposition, none were likely to, in 2011 the sponsors withdrew the amendments.  As a result, the official text of the UCC now corresponds to the law that most states have enacted.<ref>''What Can We Learn from the Failed 2003-2005 Amendments to UCC Article 2.'' Miller, F.H. 52 S. Tex. L. Rev. 471 (2010–2011). Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/stexlr52&div=30&id=&page=.</ref>

In 1989, the [[National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws]] recommended that Article 6 of the UCC, dealing with bulk sales, be repealed as obsolete.  Approximately 45 states have done so.  Two others have followed the alternative recommendation of revising Article 6.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}

A major revision of Article 9, dealing primarily with transactions in which [[personal property]] is used as security for a loan or extension of credit, was enacted in all states.  The revision had a uniform effective date of July 1, 2001, though in a few states it went into effect shortly after that date.<ref>[http://www.ffiec.gov/pdf/pr022801_statement.pdf FFIEC.gov]</ref>  In 2010, NCCUSL and the ALI proposed modest amendments to Article 9.  Several states have already enacted these amendments, which have a uniform effective date of July 1, 2013.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}

The controversy surrounding with what is now termed the [[Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act]] (UCITA) originated in the process of revising Article 2 of the UCC.  The provisions of what is now UCITA were originally meant to be "Article 2B" on [[Software license|Licenses]] within a revised Article 2 on Sales.  As the UCC is the only [[List of Uniform Acts (United States)|uniform law]] that is a joint project of NCCUSL and the ALI, both associations must agree to any revision of the UCC (''i.e.'', the model act; revisions to the law of a particular state only require enactment in that state).  The proposed final draft of Article 2B met with controversy within the ALI, and as a consequence the ALI did not grant its assent.  The NCCUSL responded by renaming Article 2B and promulgating it as the UCITA.  As of October 12, 2004, only [[Maryland]] and [[Virginia]] had adopted UCITA.

The overriding philosophy of the Uniform Commercial Code is to allow people to make the contracts they want, but to fill in any missing provisions where the agreements they make are silent.  The law also seeks to impose uniformity and streamlining of routine transactions such as the processing of checks, notes, and other routine commercial paper.  The law frequently distinguishes between [[merchant]]s, who customarily deal in a commodity and are presumed to know well the business they are in, and [[consumer]]s, who are not.

The UCC also seeks to discourage the use of legal formalities in making business contracts, in order to allow business to move forward without the intervention of lawyers or the preparation of elaborate documents.  This last point is perhaps the most questionable part of its underlying philosophy; many{{Who|date=February 2010}} in the legal profession have argued that legal formalities discourage litigation by requiring some kind of ritual that provides a clear dividing line that tells people when they have made a final deal over which they could be sued.