ABSTRACT

Reflecting development of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which has been adopted in various forms by all 50 states of the United States, and the increased sophistication of commercial and financial transactions such as the pooling of credit card receivables and the swapping of commodities, the role of “title” in the United States to a good or service has diminished in importance. The last stronghold in the United States for the construct of “title” is probably real estate transactions. This is true because title often has little to do with connoting which party really has the economic and controlling interest in the property in question. Unfortunately, the concept of “title” is not really descriptive enough to deal with the intricacies of modern trade. Many other conventions have developed, such as the Incoterms referred to in Chapter 21, which are beginning to supplant the concept of “title.”