The Commission on Uniform State Laws collective or aggregate theory of part
297
A short Uniform Act on the Uniform
nership, the theory on which the Eng
ity of Execution of Wills was adopted
lish act is based, and the other on the
by the Conference in 1892 and re
entity or legal person theory of partnership, the theory on which the Conference authorized Dean Ames to pro ceed." Those drafts will be considered at the next conference. The Uniform Certificates of Stock Act, drafted by Professor Williston, and finally approved in 1909, has been passed in Maryland and Massachusetts. Col. MacChesney disapproves of one section as giving full negotiability to certificates
endorsed in 1910. A short Uniform Act relative to the probate in any one state of foreign wills
of stock, "going beyond the existing law,
as under it a thief can convey title, even though the unauthorized dealing with the endorsed certificate was in no sense due to the owner's negligence. While this is an entirely proper and safe
enough rule for short-time paper, such as promissory notes, bills of lading,
warehouse receipts, etc., I do not regard it as a desirable one when applied to certificates of stock.”
The Uniform Bills of Lading Act, drafted by Professor Williston, and ap proved in 1909, “is perhaps one of the most important that has ever been given consideration by the Commissioners, and it is absolutely essential that there should be general agreement upon the subject. It is believed bills of lading,
was adopted in 1892, being again con
sidered and referred back to committee for redrafting in 1910. The Uniform Divorce Act “is believed to be as near an ideal act on the sub
ject as can be framed at the present time.” It provides six causes for divorce: adultery; bigamy; conviction of certain crimes; extreme cruelty; wilful deser tion for two years; habitual drunkenness
for two years.
"As has been pointed
out, however, the desirability of the law depends, not upon its number of causes, but upon its jurisdictional features, and
if these could be adopted, much of the scandal attendant upon present divorce decrees would be done away with." The Family Desertion and Non-Sup port Act proceeds on the theory that the offense should be treated as a crime. "At present it is not an extraditable offense in Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas."
The Act on Marriages and Licenses to Marry, which approaches the problem of divorce from the marriage standpoint, “throws safeguards around the forming
which are used so largely as mediums
of the marriage contract, and the com
of exchange or substitutes for money, above all other forms of commercial paper should be given the fullest nego
mon law marriage is abolished, a step which Illinois took in 1905. Most of the discussion in the Conference during the first two sessions which considered the proposed act centered on the aboli
tiability powible, as has been done in
this act, and that no modification of the act should be made which shall impair its efficiency in this respect.” A Uniform Food and Drugs Act has been urged upon the Conference for consideration, but the Conference recom mends merely that state laws on this
subject be practically uniform with the federal law.
tion of the common law marriage, and only at the Conference last year was
that principle adopted, and then by a close vote, practically every Southern state voting against its abolition, largely, presumably, because of the negro prob lem in those states."
The Uniform Incorporation Act, upon
