Professor Sarah Howard Jenkins, UALR’s Charles C. Baum Distinguished Professor of Law, will assume the chair of the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Payments in March.

The payments subcommittee is one of eight ABA panels charged with implementing the educational mission of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee. Jenkins’ opportunity for service comes at a time when global commerce and electronic payments are increasing exponentially, setting the stage for reevaluation of the existing laws on payment methods such as checks, promissory notes, bank drafts, and electronic funds transfers.
Jenkins also recently coordinated a symposium issue of articles to be published by the Loyola (Los Angeles) Law Review. The issue, entitled The Private Ordering of Contractual Relations – Contracting Out of the UCC, is expected to generate considerable debate and commentary among scholars and practitioners.

Several of the symposium articles challenge the conventional wisdom employed by courts in resolving issues on the enforceability of choice of law, choice of forum, and arbitration clauses in form or standardized contracts used by vendors in mass marketing transactions; others challenge the relevancy of the Universal Commercial Code to govern payments or software licensing transactions. Jenkins authored the preface to the symposium and the article addressing the ability of parties to contract out of Article 2, those state law provisions that govern transactions for the sale of personal property called goods.