St. John's Law Review Volume 26 Number 1 Volume 26, December 1951, Number Article 3 1 Negotiable Instruments Edward D. Re Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in St. John's Law Review by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS EDWARD D. RE - I. INTRODUCTION T HE uniformity envisioned by the draftsmen of the original Negotiable Instruments Law over half a century ago, has, to a large extent, vanished from the American legal scene. Indeed, its passing began even before it had reached ma- turity, for the Law, itself, was never adopted in identical form in all the states. Furthermore, such of its substance, as was uniformly accepted, has been subject to more than fifty years of amendment, modification, and divergent inter- pretation in the various jurisdictions.1 In addition, it has become increasingly obvious that the statute, as originally drafted and presently in force, contains certain basic defects which render substantial revision both necessary and desirable. 2 The proposed Commercial Code, in the article on "Commercial Paper," is designed to achieve t Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law. 'An example is the construction placed on Section 62 of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law. See Wells Fargo Bank and Union Trust Co. v. Bank of Italy, 214 Cal.