(a) This act must be liberally construed and applied to promote its
underlying purposes and policies, which are:
(1) to simplify, clarify, and modernize the law governing commercial
transactions;
(2) to permit the continued expansion of commercial practices through
custom, usage, and agreement of the parties; and
(3) 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.