§ 34.1-1-103 — Construction of this act to promote its purposes and policies; applicability to supplemental principles of law

(a) This act shall be liberally construed and applied to
promote its underlying purposes and policies, which are:
(i) To simplify, clarify, and modernize the law
governing commercial transactions;
(ii) To permit the continued expansion of commercial
practices through custom, usage, and agreement of the parties;
and
(iii) To make uniform the law among the various
jurisdictions.
(b) Unless displaced by the particular provisions of this
act, the principles of law and equity, including the law
merchant and the law relative to capacity to contract, principal
and agent, estoppel, fraud, misrepresentation, duress, coercion,
mistake, bankruptcy, and other validating or invalidating cause
supplement its provisions.