Contracts: Uniform Commercial Code

The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a comprehensive set of laws governing all commercial transactions in the United States. It is not a federal law, but a uniformly adopted state law. It was produced by the joint efforts of legal scholars from the Uniform Law Commission and the American Law Institute.

The UCC consists of eleven "articles," the most commonly referenced one being Article 2, Sales.

UCC AND THE STATES

Like all Uniform Laws, the UCC was developed as model legislation to promote uniformity among the states. Today, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia, have adopted the UCC in some form into their legislative codes.

To see how the UCC appears in a particular state, check the state's annotated code (look for UCC in the index).

To compare states, try any of the following:

• LexisNexis' UCC State Variation Table - full text, arranged by UCC section

• Westlaw's UCC State Variation Service - search by UCC section, state name or state section

• Cornell LII's Uniform Commercial Code Locator  - free resource with links to state statutes

This page is an attempt to gather useful resources concerning the UCC that are available through Kahn Law Library or HPU Libraries, or are open access.

There are four main places to find information about the UCC:

1. The Code itself
2. Official Comments of the Code editors
3. Cases interpreting the Code
4. Treatises, journal articles and other secondary sources

Secondary sources are a good place to begin for background and interpretation of the law. 

Uniform Commercial Code Cases & Administrative Materials by (West)

• Includes cases, attorney general opinions and commentary indexed by UCC section. Available on Westlaw (Database ID: UCC-CS).

• Available on Lexis (Database ID: UCC Reporter-Digest). Part 2 has case annotations arranged by UCC section.

Uniform Laws Annotated by (West)

• The Uniform Laws Annotated (ULA) volumes include the text of most of the uniform laws in the United States. Volumes 1 through 5 include the latest UCC official text and comments, an editorial section, cross references, state variations, citations to cases and law reviews, and forms (vol. 4). Available on Westlaw.

Anderson on the Uniform Commercial Code 3d by (West

• Includes UCC text and official comments, local statutory citations and variations, and commentary with citations to cases in footnotes. Available on Westlaw (Database ID: ANDR-UCC).

To find law journal and law review articles on the UCC, use any of the following tools:

• Current Index to Legal Periodicals
• Index to Legal Periodicals (1926-1967)
• LegalTrac
• HeinOnline

Lexis and Westlaw include specialized databases on commercial law.

LEXIS+

From the Home page:  All Practice Areas and Topics tab > Commercial Law (UCC)

WESTLAW PRECISION

From the Home page:  Topics > Commercial Law