J. MILLARD TAWES, GOVERNOR                           1717

group and a research staff to consider the Uniform Commercial
Code.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State
Laws recently prepared and promulgated a Uniform Commercial
Code. The completion of the Commercial Code followed years of
intensive work and preparation by the National Conference.

The work of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is well
known in the State of Maryland. This organization is an adjunct of
the Maryland Bar Association, and for more than sixty years has
been preparing and recommending to the states Uniform Acts in
the many areas in which uniformity and careful preparation will
benefit the commercial and legal interests of the people of the
several states.

The Uniform Commercial Code already has been enacted in the
States of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, and Rhode Island. It is being considered by a number
of other states, and the Maryland Commissioners have recommended
that it be considered actively also by the State of Maryland.

The General Assembly concurs in this recommendation and urges
the Governor of this State to appoint the necessary study group and
to provide for the necessary research staff to accomplish this vital job.

The Commercial Code is massive in scope. It covers such matters
as formation, construction and breach of contract and remedies
therefor, the entire subject of commercial paper including negotiable
instruments, bank deposits and collections, bulk transfers, warehouse
receipts and bills of lading, investment securities, and chattel mort-
gages and conditional contracts of sale. If adopted, the Uniform
Commercial Code would supersede at least seven uniform laws here-
tofore adopted by Maryland and would affect numerous subjects
where uniform laws have not heretofore been attempted. In short,
the Uniform Commercial Code would affect all major forms of bank-
ing, financing and economic activity of this State, and if adopted
by this State and others, is designed to bring about uniformity of law
with regard to economic activities to supplant the maze of conflicting
local provisions. Thus, the basic purpose of the Uniform Commercial
Code is to facilitate interstate economic activity by making uniform
the rules of law applicable thereto.

Before the Uniform Commercial Code should be proposed for
enactment it should receive careful study to determine how it will
alter existing Maryland rules of law, and it should be studied care-
fully by representatives of the various forms of banking, financing
and economic activity in this State to obtain a considered judgment
as to whether enactment thereof would facilitate economic activity.

Obviously, the study of the Uniform Commercial Code is one that
will require time and concerted effort. Accordingly, it is being
recommended by the Maryland Commissioners and by the General
Assembly that the Governor appoint a study group of perhaps fifteen
or twenty outstanding business and commercial leaders of the com-
munity who as representatives of business and commercial interests
throughout the State will be able to render a considered judgment
as to whether the State of Maryland should adopt this Code. Such
a group also should include a number of outstanding attorneys, along