May 22, 2023 - The Executive Committee of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has recently authorized the appointment of two new study committees and two new drafting committees.
The new study committees are:
Study Committee on Gamete Donor Identity Disclosure
This committee will consider whether gamete donor identification should be mandatory upon request by a donor-conceived child. The committee should consider (a) whether to revise Article 9 of the Uniform Parentage Act (2017), (b) whether to draft a separate act on the subject, and (c) whether the issues addressed in Sections 904 and 905 of the Uniform Parentage Act (2017) should be moved into a separate article.
Study Committee on Probate and Non-Probate Transfer Integration
Many provisions of the Uniform Probate Code, including the provisions governing creditors' rights and the elective share of a surviving spouse, take into account the decedent's probate and non-probate transfers. So do the provisions of federal and state law imposing wealth transfer taxes. These provisions assume that someone is able to integrate the decedent's probate and non-probate estates. Yet the court-appointed personal representative of the decedent's probate estate often encounters great difficulty in gathering information about the decedent's non-probate transfers. This committee will study the need for and feasibility of a uniform or model act on the subject, including the possibility of revisions to the relevant portions of the Uniform Probate Code.
The new drafting committees are:
Drafting Committee on Assignment for Benefit of Creditors
An assignment for benefit of creditors (ABC) is a voluntary, debtor-initiated state law alternative to the bankruptcy process, state receiverships, and voluntary workouts. Though initiated by the debtor, ABCs may provide benefits to creditors as well as debtors that alternative procedures do not. However, ABC statutes vary widely from state to state, as do custom and practice; thus, the use of ABCs varies across the country. The Study Committee on Assignment for Benefit of Creditors recommended that a drafting committee be formed to address: (1) state ABC law's interaction with bankruptcy and other state and federal laws; (2) choice of law rules, including whether an ABC should be treated as a security interest; (3) court involvement in the ABC process; and (4) transparency, due process, conflicts of interest, and adequate notice procedures, particularly with respect to duties of assignees. This committee will draft a uniform or model act on the subject.
Drafting Committee on Judicial Interview Procedures for Children
This committee will draft a uniform or model act addressing custody, visitation, parentage, and related proceedings in which other law permits or requires the child's views to be heard. The act should address (1) the factors to be considered when the law accords judicial discretion as to whether a child's views should be heard, and (2) the procedures to be used when either (a) the law requires or (b) a judge determines to permit a child's views to be heard. The procedures should explicitly address due process rights of parents, including access to the results of the interview.
Further information on all current drafting and study committees, as well as information on the Uniform Law Commission, can be found at the ULC's website at www.uniformlaws.org.
Study Committees review an assigned area of law in light of defined criteria and recommend whether ULC should proceed with a draft on that subject. Drafting committees, composed of commissioners, with participation from observers, advisors and reporter-drafters, meet throughout the year. Tentative drafts are not submitted to the entire Commission until they have received extensive committee consideration.
Proposed acts are subjected to rigorous examination and debate before they become eligible for designation as ULC products. The final decision on whether an act is ready for promulgation to the states is made near the close of an annual meeting, on a vote by states basis, with an affirmative vote of twenty or more states necessary for final approval.
The Uniform Law Commission, now in its 132nd year, provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law. The organization comprises more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to research, draft and promote enactment of uniform state laws in areas of state law where uniformity is desirable and practical. Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.
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Contact: Katie Robinson, ULC Communications Officer, krobinson@...
Uniform Law Commission / 111 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1010, Chicago, IL 60602 / 312-450-6600, www.uniformlaws.org
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Katie Robinson
Senior Director for Strategy and Communications
Chicago IL
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