Article 2 (Sales) was promulgated in 1957, and is one of the 10 substantive articles of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), developed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the American Law Institute (ALI). This primer explains the structure and principles of UCC Article 2 as it applies to typical sales transactions providing readers with a coherent approach to analyzing issues encountered in a sale of goods transaction. Use this resource as a review of issues previously encountered or as an introduction to Article 2. Refer to the bibliography at the end of this book as a starting point for further research on this area.

Since it was first proposed over seventy years ago, the Uniform Commercial Code has become both an indispensable part of the study of law and an essential part of legal practice. Adopted by all 50 states, the Code has been hailed as one of the great products of American law. Its impact is by no means limited to the United States. The Code has become an important U.S. export: other nations have modeled their laws after our Uniform Commercial Code. Many practitioners and students find the UCC difficult to master due to:

• sometimes appearing to have been written in its own shorthand;
• no single provision of the Code can truly be understood without an understanding of the other provisions of the Code;
• the Code may be uniform, but it is not comprehensive; and
• the Uniform Commercial Code itself is not law.