Professor Thomas Mitchell of the University of Wisconsin Law School has been named Reporter for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) initiative to develop a Uniform Tenancy in Common Partition Act.

Mitchell was selected for the national position in recognition of his significant expertise in property law and work with the issue of black land loss in the rural South. His role is to inform the drafting committee that consists of judges, law professors and leading practitioners of the current state of legislation and case law across the country as it pertains to the remedy of partition of real property holdings.

Mitchell will also research and inform the committee on U.S. reform proposals for partition of property under co-ownership from the last 40 to 50 years in this area as well as comparative international methods of dealing with partition including examples from Great Britain, Canada, and Australia.

"Initially," says Mitchell, "I will provide the committee with a comprehensive list of legal issues that our committee will need to address during the drafting process. In addition, the committee will ask me periodically, ‘Can we do this?’ as certain reform ideas are considered, and my responsibility will be to research the legality of these proposals."

Mitchell adds, "The uniform law process is very much an example of law-in-action as many national stakeholders from the real estate industry, the banking industry, and the civil rights community will be actively participating at each of the drafting sessions."

Mitchell will also draft the law itself after the development process is completed. He comments, "Any state looking to change its own laws will see what NCCUSL has done, because a uniform law is often very persuasive at the state level."

Mitchell will be attending meetings in Chicago regularly for a two-year term that began in September 2007. In addition, as NCCUSL works hard to get uniform laws enacted into law in states throughout the country, Mitchell will help NCCUSL at that stage of the process.

Submitted by on October 8, 2007

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