Commercial Law

commercial law: an overview

Commercial law governs the broad areas of business, commerce, and consumer transactions. Specific law has developed in a number of commercial fields. These include:

• Banking
• Bankruptcy
• Consumer credit
• Contracts
• Debtor and creditor
• Landlord-tenant
• Mortgages
• Negotiable instruments
• Real estate transactions
• Sales
• Secured transactions

The Uniform Commercial Code, which has been substantially adopted as statutory law in nearly every state, governs numerous areas of commercial law. Currently it is divided into thirteen Articles:

• Article 1 (General Provisions)
• Article 2 (Sales)
• Article 2A (Leases)
• Article 3 (Negotiable Instruments)
• Article 4 (Bank Deposits)
• Article 4A (FundsTransfers)
• Article 5 (Letters of Credit)
• Article 6 (Bulk Sales)
• Article 7 (Warehouse Receipts)
• Article 8 (Investment Securities)
• Article 9 (Secured Transactions)
• Article 10 (Effective Date and Repealer)
• Article 11 (Effective Date and Transition Provisions)