Toward Uniform Guardianship Legislation

The Model Probate Code, part IV of which covers guardianship of the persons and property of infants and mental incompetents, was published in 1946 under the auspices of the University of Michigan Law School. It was prepared for the Probate Law Division of the Section of Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law of the American Bar Association by its Model Probate Code Committee in cooperation with the research staff of the Law School. No state has adopted the Model Probate Code in its entirety, but parts of it have been enacted in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas, and it has influenced legislation elsewhere, notably in Pennsylvania. In 1962 the American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law established the Special Committee on Revision of Model Probate Code, and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws organized the Uniform Probate Code Committee. Under the guidance of these two committees, a Reporting Staff headed by Professor William J. Pierce is engaged in drafting a revised and expanded version of the 1946 Model Probate Code designed for promulgation by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws as a Uniform Probate Code. Among the drafts currently under consideration by the committees and the Reporting Staff is the First Tentative Draft of Revised Part IV, Model Probate Code, entitled “Protection of Persons Under Disability and Their Property.” Some of the problems which this draft is designed to solve may be of interest to the profession.