Toward a Consumer Code for California

In 1968 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws promulgated the Uniform Consumer Credit Code and encouraged its enactment by the individual states. Several states have already done so-each modifying the uniform code as necessary to assimilate the desirable aspects of existing state law. The California Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 3 which proposes the enactment of a Consumer Code, a major portion of which is composed of a revised version of the uniform code. Herein, the author analyzes the provisions of the proposed Consumer Code with particular emphasis upon its significant deviations from the text of the uniform code. In the process of this analysis the author provides a unique view of the various difficulties necessarily encountered when a comprehensive body of law becomes the subject of legislative examination. The article is especially useful as a tool for evaluating the relative impact of the motivational forces, emanating from both the public and private sectors, which have combined to affect the legislative history of Senate Bill 3