The Massachusetts Board of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has made a significant addition with the swearing in of Boston College Law Professor Thomas W. Mitchell. Recently appointed to the position by Governor Maura Healey, Mitchell–the Robert F. Drinan, SJ, Endowed Chair at BC Law–is now one of five Uniform Law Commissioners serving the Commonwealth. The other four commissioners are three practicing lawyers and one law professor at Harvard Law School.
The idea behind uniform laws is to create model state statutes that may be adopted in similar forms across state legislatures in the country, ensuring consistency and clarity in implementation in state laws. The national Uniform Law Commission (ULC) was established in 1892 as a nonpartisan institution, and is composed of state commissions on uniform laws from each state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. State commissioners are required to be lawyers who are members of the bar.
Mitchell has worked with the ULC for nearly 20 years, first as the reporter for the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), for which he was the principal drafter, then on enactment efforts for the UPHPA in states throughout the country. The UHPHA has been enacted into law in 26 states and other jurisdictions thus far, states that have seventy percent of the U.S. population, which makes the UPHPA one of the most successful uniform acts the ULC has promulgated over the course of the past 25 years. Based upon this record, Mitchell also has advised the ULC on enactment strategies for all of its current and future uniform acts.
The work of the ULC is closely related to his work as the founding director of BC Law’s Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights (the Initiative). The Initiative seeks to preserve and expand property rights for disadvantaged communities across the United States. To wit, the Initiative is developing a range of law reform and policy proposals to address a range of property and housing challenges disadvantaged communities experience, including another model state statute proposal the ULC is considering at this time.
In a message to colleagues at BC Law, Mitchell thanked them for the many congratulations offered and reflected on the journey that has led him to this appointment. He noted that when he began with the ULC in 2007, he was one of just a small handful of people of color ever to have served as a reporter for the ULC in its long history, and now looks forward to contributing further to its work as a Massachusetts commissioner.