Well, of course, the original statute was replacing a bunch of State statutes or State rules, partly common law, partly statutory, that -- they had kind of a mixed up legal situation, and there was an interest in having one uniform rule for the first time around.
Does this next sentence follow, given the preceding text?
A single statute that could encompass other statutes and common law would hopefully reduce ambiguity and increase consistency. 

 a. Yes. b. It's impossible to say. c. No.
a.