A. UCC Official Text
The official text of the UCC has undergone several revisions. The first official text was promulgated in 1951 (and published in 1952), with additional Official Texts appearing in 1957, 1958, and 1962. In 1961 a Permanent Editorial Board (PEB) was established to evaluate and edit the code. New articles were added in 1987 (Article 2A) and 1989 (Article 4A). Since 1962, there have been no wholesale revisions of the Code. Instead, the PEB has revised individual articles at various times, and periodically publishes the Official Text.
In addition to the Official Text of the Code, the UCC contains explanatory material intended to address and resolve any confusion or ambiguity in its provisions. These are the Official Comments of the Permanent Editorial Board, and the Permanent Editorial Board Commentaries. While these two items have similar titles, they are different entities. The Official Comments have been published along with the Official Text since the first edition of the Code. The PEB Commentaries began in 1990 to address ambiguities and other issues left open by the Code and the Official Comments. The PEB Commentaries are generally published at the end of the Official Text in an appendix.
HeinOnline provides access to all official texts, PEB Commentaries, PEB meeting minutes, drafts, state annotations, and general revisions to the UCC.
The Law Library also has access to material relevant to the history of the UCC and its evolution:
- American Law Institute: Annual Proceedings
These are edited transcripts of the annual proceedings, and contain discussions of draft versions of ALI publications, including the UCC.
- American Law Institute Library
Contains the Uniform Commercial Code and all superseded restatements, codifications, proceedings, reports and other special publications published by the ALI. Also contains ALI-ABA periodicals and material from the Statement of Essential Human Rights archive.
- Karl Llewellyn Papers
- Llewellyn, a law professor at Columbia and the University of Chicago, was the first Chief Reporter of the UCC, and was largely responsible for the development of the original Code. Section J of his papers contains materials related to the UCC.
- National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws Library
- Contains drafts, memos, agendas and more involving the creation and maintenance of the UCC.
State Versions of the UCC
- UCC Local Code Variations (Through January 2008) Westlaw
- U.C.C. Local Code Variations reflects the differences that exist between the text of the Official Uniform Commercial Code and the Code as it adopted by the legislatures of the various states, territories and the District of Columbia. The information is organized by Article and section of the Official Code. The variations are found beneath the each Code section and are listed by state.
- Uniform Laws Annotated (1968-Present) Catalog, Westlaw
- This title is particularly useful because it notes state adoptions and variations of each UCC provision. Along with other uniform and model laws, the Uniform Laws Annotated contains the UCC Official Text as well as Official Comments and PEB Commentaries. The annotations include citations to relevant cases and secondary sources.
- Uniform Commercial Code Resources on Bloomberg Law
- Includes links to all state versions, as well as treatises on the UCC.
B. Case Law Resources
The enacted versions of the UCC are also interpreted and applied in both state and federal courts. While general case reporters at all levels (such as the Federal Reporter and state supreme court reporters) will report these cases, there are also several databases and print reporters that publish commercial law cases exclusively.
- State Uniform Commercial Code Cases (Dates of coverage vary by court) Lexis
- Contains all Uniform Commercial Code Cases from all available Supreme Court,
Courts of Appeals, selected trial and miscellaneous court decisions from all
states, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.
- Uniform Commercial Code Cases (Dates of coverage vary by court) Westlaw
- Database contains documents from federal courts and from the state or local courts of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Virgin Islands that have appeared in West's national reporter system or in Callaghan's uniform commercial code reporting service. Also included are selected unreported decisions which may be published at a later date.
- Uniform Commercial Code Cases, Federal & State (Dates of coverage vary by court) Lexis
- Contains case law from the following federal and state sources: U.S. Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, Court of Appeal
Federal Circuit, District Courts, Court of Claims, Bankruptcy Courts and individual state courts. The file is made up of
selected documents relating to Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) law.
