A History of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

METHODS AND POLICY OBJECTIVES Wherever there is a problem regarded as common to two or more areas governed by different legislatures, a question inevitably arises as to how the law of the areas may be made uniform whenever it is desirable to do so. There appear to be three methods of obtaining the uniformity assumed to be desirable: (i) by voluntary action of the two law-making bodies adopting identical laws; (2) by agreement negotiated by a representative of the two governments and adopted by the appropriate legislative bodies; (3) by direction of a superior law-making body capable of compelling other law-making bodies to desist from having separate, distinct, and different laws. The first, or voluntary method, is always available without regard to the structure of the governments. The only requisite for this method is that both governments have a power to legislate on the subject involved. Thus, within a nation, or a state of a federal system having many local self-governing bodies, such as cities and villages, it is possible for two or more municipal governments voluntarily to adopt an identical law on any subject over which they have legislative power; it is equally possible for two or more states within a federal system voluntarily to adopt an identical law; and it is possible for two or more national states voluntarily to adopt an identical law. The method of obtaining uniformity by direction depends on the structure of government of the two areas involved. Thus, in most parts of the world it is possible for a central government having power over the municipal governments to obtain the desired uniformity by enacting a law of its own which is supreme over the laws of these lesser units of government. Within a federal system this method of obtaining uniformity is also available wherever the constituent states have, with respect to a subject, concurrent power with the national government. Thus, in the United States it is possible to obtain uniformity in many matters simply by Congress enacting a law which under the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution supersedes state law. If there is no government having supreme or superior power over the other legislative bodies involved, this method, uniformity by direction, is not an available choice. Thus, in the international world where