SALES OF GOODS CONTRACT

Sales of Goods Contract

Sales of Goods Contract

Introduction

The Sale of Goods Act 1893 has been the cornerstone of British sales law for over a century. Its durability is due to two crucial factors (Atiyah 2001, p. 11). First, many of its provisions take the form of default rules. As originally enacted, the Act also gave contracting parties a free hand to waive or alter the terms that it inserted into contracts of sale. Though, following an amendment made by the 1980 Act, these terms cannot now be altered in the case of consumer sales and can be altered only where shown to be 'fair and reasonable' in commercial sales, the legislation still affords a substantial degree of latitude to the parties to commercial contracts. Secondly, in providing that, unless inconsistent with the statutory provisions, the rules of the common law continue to apply to contracts of sale, the 1893 Act left ample space for the evolution of sales law in line with the general development of the common law relating to obligations (Atiyah 2001, p. 11).

Discussion

The first amendment of the 1893 Act had to await the passing of the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980, an enactment whose main purpose was to strengthen the protections available to consumers (Atiyah 2001, p. 11). Though the 1980 Act was a progressive piece of legislation in a number of respects, it took the form of additions and amendments to the 1893 Act rather than its repeal and replacement. In order to understand the statutory rules governing contracts of sale, it is necessary to read the original Act of 1893, the sections substituted in the 1893 Act by the 1980 Act, the textual and non-textual amendments to the 1893 Act made by the 1980 Act and other enactments, as well as the new provisions of the 1980 Act - a state of affairs, not in keeping with the principles of better regulation. The focus of the 1980 Act on enhancing the protections available to consumers also left much of the parent Act untouched; in all, fifty three of the 1893 Act's sixty two sections were unaffected by the amendments effected by the 1980 Act (Atiyah 2001, p. 11).

The time for a thorough revision, of the 1893 and 1980 Acts and the related secondary legislation, is now long overdue. There is a need to distinguish between legislative provisions that no longer serve a necessary or useful purpose in modem conditions and those that remain relevant but require modification. There is a need also to integrate the provisions of domestic and EU legislation III a more coherent and accessible way than has been done to date, and to achieve a workable balance between the partly common, partly separate requirements of the provisions governing consumer and commercial contracts of sale while maintaining, as far as achievable, a unified sales law regime.

The Implication of Terms by Statute

Though the rights that buyers enjoy by virtue of the implied quality and other terms in ...