Arizona Attorney - April 2009

the floor debate about a pending proposed uniform law. There was no staff to speak of, and no legislative aides scurrying to and fro on the floor. … The debates testified to the ability of thoughtful practitioners, usually without any expertise in the field under study, to carefully analyze and discuss the merits of a pending proposal. ⁸

Until recently, the Arizona Uniform Law Commission was authorized by statute. But in 2007, the Legislature repealed the authorizing law and the underlying legislative appropriation that was used to cover dues and transportation of commissioners to the annual meeting. ⁹Then-Gov. Janet Napolitano stepped in to re-establish the Arizona Commission by executive order and reappointed the existing commissioners to a six-year term. ¹⁰The Governor’s Office, however, has been unable to provide funding for annual dues owed by the Commission or for commissioners’ expenses. ¹¹

One might wonder why Arizona needs its own commission on uniform laws. After all, the Legislature can always access any uniform law on the ULC Web site or at the law library. There are several reasons why the state should have its own delegates to the ULC.

By virtue of their work, commissioners are aware of proposed uniform laws and can apprise the Legislature of new uniform laws on a timely basis. If Arizona already has a uniform law on the books, commissioners can make sure that the state Legislature is aware of any amendments to

the law emerging from the ULC. As a “consumer” of uniform laws, Arizona has been quite active, having enacted more than 90 uniform laws over the years.

Recent Uniform
Law Developments

At its 2008 annual meeting in Big Sky,
Montana, the ULC considered a range of
proposals and approved one new act, the
Uniform Unsworn Foreign Declarations Act,
as well as amendments to five existing acts.
The 2008 amendments include important
revisions to the Uniform Interstate Family
Support Act, the Uniform Probate Code,
the Uniform Common Interest Ownership
Act, the Revised Uniform Unincorporated
Nonprofit Association Act and the Uniform
Principal and Income Act.

An additional advantage is that Arizona commissioners can represent interests important to this state in the drafting of uniform laws. In other words, Arizona’s membership in the ULC enables commissioners to put Arizona’s issues and concerns into the national drafting process. Tim Berg, for example, chairs the ULC Committee on Liaison with American Indian Tribes and Nations and was centrally involved in drafting a model act for tribes on secured transactions. ¹²The first tribe to adopt the act was the Crow Nation, and several Arizona-based tribes also have taken an interest in this area.

Information on all of these acts,
including the approved text of each, as well
as organization activities and projects,
can be found at
www.nccusl.org

Another example is the author’s work on the amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act to accommodate the recently adopted Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. As a border state, Arizona has faced the complexities of international family support enforcement for many years. The amendments to UIFSA provide an efficient procedure for cooperation between child support authorities across international borders.

ULC held its annual meeting at a resort in Tucson. These meetings typically draw 250 to 300 people for a week of proceedings and social events. Such gatherings are clearly a boost for local hotels and restaurants. Also, ULC drafting committee meetings are held throughout the year, and many such meetings have been held in Arizona at the suggestion of local commissioners.

A side benefit of having a state com-
mission is purely economic. In 2005, the

The work of the ULC has been an essential vehicle for law reform in areas where national uniformity is needed. Members of the Arizona Commission welcome your suggestions for future areas of study, especially those in which Arizona interests are prominent.

AZ

AT

endnotes

1. Timothy Berg, managing partner, Fennemore Craig; James Bush, retired from Fennemore Craig after more than 50 years of practice; Roger Henderson, emeritus professor of law and former dean, University of Arizona College of Law; L. Gene Lemon, retired attorney and former in-house counsel to Dial Corporation; Edward Lowry, private practitioner and former mayor of Paradise Valley; and the author, Barbara Atwood, a professor of law at the University of Arizona College of Law.

2. See WALTER P. ARMSTRONG, JR., A CENTURY OF SERVICE–A CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF COMMISSIONERS ON UNIFORM STATE LAWS 12 (West 1991).

3. For civil procedure buffs, an interesting link exists between the UCC and the Erie doctrine. Justice Story, who wrote the opinion in Swift v. Tyson, 42 U.S. 1 (1846), holding that federal courts in diversity of citizenship cases could formulate principles of general commercial law, was a strong believer in the need for uniformity in the commercial world. When the Supreme Court in Erie R.R. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 421 (1938), overturned Swift, the holding left a vacuum that was soon filled by the Uniform Commercial Code.

4. The UCC was a collaborative project with the American Law Institute. The reporters, well-known scholars Karl Llewellyn and Soia Mentshikoff, later

married, perhaps the only romance to have been engendered by the Conference. ARMSTRONG, supra note 2, at 76.

5. The UCCJA was replaced by the more comprehensive Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act in 1997. At present, 47 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UCCJEA.

6. A complete listing of Arizona commissioners from 1900 to 1990 can be found in ARMSTRONG, supra note 2, at 180 (Appendix F).

7. Id. at 153 (Appendix A).

8. Id. at 1 (Foreword).

9. H.B. 2785, Ariz. House of Representatives, 48th Leg., 1st Sess. (2007) (repealing A. R. S. §§ 41-1306, 41-1307, and 41-3010.11).

10. Executive Order 2007-16 (establishing the Arizona Uniform State Laws Commission).

11. At present, Commissioners are responsible for their own costs in attending the annual meeting. The ULC dues owing from the Arizona Commission, totaling approximately $37,000 annually, have gone unpaid since the repeal of the legislative appropriation.