HD16 - Report of the Virginia Commissioners to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws


Executive Summary:
In 1889, the New York Bar Association appointed a special committee on uniformity of laws. The following year the New York legislature authorized the appointment of commissioners

.....to examine certain subjects of national importance that seem to show conflict among the laws of the several commonwealths, t ascertain the best means to effect an assimilation or uniformity of laws of the states, and especially whether it would be advisable for the State of New York to invite the other states of the Union to send representatives to a convention to draft uniform laws to be submitted for approval and adoption by the several states.

In the same year, the American Bar Association passed a resolution recommending that each state provide for commissioners to confer with the commissioners of other states regarding legislation on certain issues. In August of 1892, the first National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) convened in Saratoga, New York.

By 1912, every state was participating in the Conference. Since then, the Conference has steadily increased its contribution to state law and has attracted some of the most outstanding members of the legal profession. Prior to his more notable political prominence and service as president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson became a member in 1901. Supreme Court Justices Brandeis and Rutledge, current Chief Justice Rehnquist, and such legal scholars as Professors Wigmore, Williston, Pound and Bogart have all served as members of the Conference. this distinguished body has quaranteed that the products of the Conference are of the highest quality and are enormously influential upon the process of the law.

The Conference, also known as the Uniform Law Commissioners (ULC), began more than 100 years ago because of the interests of state governments in improvement of the law and interstate relationships. Its purposes remain to serve state governments and improve state law.