Uniform Commercial Code

Introduction and Alignment

One area where today’s leaders have experienced ethical dilemmas is in business transactions. As business transactions often traverse state boundaries in the U.S., it has been difficult to regulate and enforce laws when leaders act in unethical and illegal ways. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a set of suggested laws relating to commercial transactions. These statutes were created to help provide consistency among the states. In this exercise, you will explore the provisions contained within the UCC and discuss ethical concerns specifically as they relate to e-commerce.

Upon completion of this assignment, you should be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Resources

• Website: Legal Information Institute: Uniform Commercial Code

Background Information

The UCC is divided into nine articles, each containing provisions related to a specific area of commercial law.

• Article 1, General Provisions, provides definitions and general principles that apply to the entire code.
• Article 2 covers the sale of goods.
• Article 3, Commercial Paper, addresses negotiable instruments, such as promissory notes and checks.
• Article 4 deals with banks and their handling of checks and other financial documents.
• Article 5 provides model laws on letters of credit, which are promises by a bank or some other party to pay the purchases of a buyer without delay and without reference to the buyer’s financial solvency.
• Article 6, on bulk transfers, imposes obligations on buyers who order the major part of the inventory for certain types of businesses.
• Article 7 offers rules on the relationships between buyers and sellers and any transporters of goods, called carriers.
• Article 8 contains rules on the issuance and transfer of stocks, bonds, and other investment Securities.
• Article 9, Secured Transactions, covers security interests in real property. A security interest is a partial or total claim to a piece of property to secure the performance of some obligation, usually the payment of a debt.

Most states have adopted at least some of the provisions in the UCC. The least popular article has been Article 6 on bulk transfers. These provisions require the reporting of payments made, which many legislators consider an unnecessary intrusion on commercial relationships.

Instructions

1. Familiarize yourself with the Unified Commercial Code (UCC) using this website: http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/ucc.table.html
2. Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to the following:
   1. Discuss Article 2 of the UCC as it relates to e-commerce.
   2. Identify and describe at least two ethical concerns related directly to UCC regulations.
3. Your initial post should be 200 to 300 words in length, include two academic resources that are properly cited.
4. Your initial post is due by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.
5. Read and conduct a critical analysis of postings by two of your classmates by the end of the workshop.
   1. The topic of your discussion response should be your classmate’s posting and should be written as if you were reviewing his or her posting in an academic journal. Your discussion response should therefore answer the following questions as applicable:
      1. Were the arguments of your classmate articulate and logical? Were the facts correct?
      2. Was the interpretation your classmate provided reasonable and consistent with experts in the field? Was your classmate consistent with both the substance and intent of his/her references?
   2. The focus for your critical analysis is not whether or not you agree with your classmate, but how well his or her position was presented.
   3. Each response should be at least 200 words and cite two academic sources. (Note: the academic sources do not count towards the word length requirement.)