Contracts for the sale of goods: Passing of property in goods under the law of the United Kingdom and Ghana

• Citation: (2023) 10(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 41
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a2
• Published date: 11 September 2023
• Pages: 41-57
• Author: Obiri-Korang, P.
• Date: 11 September 2023

41 https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a2

CONTRACTS FOR THE SALE OF GOODS:

PASSING OF PROPERTY IN GOODS UNDER

THE LAW OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND

GHANA

Prince Obiri-Korang*

Abstract

A contract for the sale of goods is the most commonly used transaction domestically

and at international level. Regardless of its relevance, there has been a wide

variation in the concept of “sale” has existed in the course of legal history across

the various legal systems of the world. Although a sales transaction may be rightly

described as the most universal transaction, it is pertinent to point out that there

is very little agreement on one of the transaction’s most fundamental incidents,

which is the “passing of property”. In most legal systems, aside from the generally

established rule on when the property in goods may pass from a buyer to a seller,

property in goods can also pass at any time depending on the circumstances or terms

of the relevant contract. Despite the above proposition, it is important for all persons

who engage in a sale transaction to have an understanding as to when the property

in the goods that they intend to purchase or that they have purchased passes from

the seller to them. This article pr imarily focuses on when property passes in a sale

contract in the legal systems of the UK and Ghana. This is relevant because when

a buyer enters a sale contract, it is the property in the goods that they bargain for

and not the use or mere possession or any other aspect of ownership.

Keywords: Sale of goods contract; passing of property; ownership; Ghana

Sale of Goods Act of 1962; United Kingdom Sale of Goods Act of 1979

Résumé

Un contrat de vente de biens est la transaction la plus utilisée au niveau national

et international. Indépendamment de sa pertinence, il y a eu une grande variation

dans le concept de vente’ au cours de l’histoire juridique parmi les différents systèmes

juridiques à travers le monde. Bien qu’une transaction de vente puisse être décrite

à juste titre comme la transaction la plus universelle de l’histoire, il est pertinent de

souligner qu’il y a très peu d’accord sur l’un des incidents les plus fondamentaux

de la transaction, à savoir le ‘transfert de propriété’. Dans la plupart des systèmes

juridiques, outre la règle généralement établie concernant le moment où la propriété

des biens peut être transférée de l’acheteur au vendeur, la ‘propriété’ peut également

être transférée à tout moment en fonction des circonstances ou des termes du contrat

concerné. Indépendamment de la proposition ci-dessus, il est important que toutes

les personnes qui s’engagent dans une transaction de vente sachent à quel moment

* BSc LLB (Cape Coast) PLT LLM LLD (Johannesburg). Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

Research Centre for Private International Law in Emerging Countries, Faculty of Law, University

of Johannesburg. Email pobiri-korang@uj.ac.za

(2023) 10(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 41

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42 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 10, NO 1, 2023

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a2

la propriété des biens qu’elles ont l’intention d’acheter ou qu’elles ont achetés

passe du vendeur à elles. Cette question fait l’objet de cet article, qui se concentre

principalement sur le moment où la propriété est transférée dans un contrat de vente

dans les systèmes juridiques du Royaume-Uni et du Ghana. Ceci est pertinent

car lorsqu’un acheteur conclut un contrat de vente, c’est la propriété des biens qu’il

négocie et non l’usage ou la simple possession ou tout autre aspect de la propriété.

Mots-clés: Contrat de vente de biens; transfert de propriété; propriété; Loi

Ghanéenne sur la Vente de Biens de 1962; Loi Britannique sur La Vente de

Biens de 1979

Introduction

A contract for the sale of goods is the most commonly used transaction

domestically and at the international level.1 A wide variation in the

concept of sale has existed in the course of legal history throughout the

various legal systems of the world.2 Although a sales transaction may be

rightly described as the most universal transaction in the course of history,

it is pertinent to point out that there is very little agreement on one

of the transaction’s most fundamental incidents, which is the “passing

of property”. In legal systems like that of the United Kingdom (UK),

the concept of “the property in goods” has been said to dominate much

of the thinking on their sale of goods law.3 In the UK, both property

and risk in the goods are transferred from a seller to a buyer upon the

conclusion of the contract of sale.4 Conversely, in continental systems

such as that of Germany, both the property and the r isk in the goods are

only transferred from the seller to the buyer after the goods have been

delivered to the buyer.5

1 Klepper, C.D. ‘The convention for the international sale of goods: A practical guide for the

State of Maryland and its trade community’ (1991) 15 Maryland Journal of the Law 235 at 235.

2 De Zulueta, F. The Roman Law of Sale: Introduction and Selected Texts (1945) 1.

3 Sealy, L.S. & Hooley, R.J. Commercial Law: Texts, Cases and Materials 4 ed (2009) 295.

4 Section 18 r ule (1) of the Sale of Goods Act of 1979 of the United Kingdom (UK); also, see

s 2(4) of the Sale of Goods Act of 1979 (UK) for the definition of a sale contract under UK law;

subject to the exception found in s 20A of the UK Act, when the thing sold is unascertained goods,

property cannot pass to the buyer until the goods have been ascertained. In Re Wait, the English

Court of Appeal made it clear that in sale of goods law there was no room even for an equitable title,

otherwise an equitable interest might pass or be created under such circumstances (Re Wait (1927) 1

ch 606). This is so, regardless of how well-established equity might be relied upon in relation to the

transfer of other types of property (for example, book-debts and land) (see, Tailby v Official Receiver

1888 13 App Cas 523). Perhaps this position is too strong because, of course, the parties to a contract

of sale of goods may be able to create an equitable interest in the subject matter. However, it should

be noted that Re Wait has eliminated the possibility that an equitable interest can arise by inference

or operation of law.

5 Sections 929 and 446 of the Ger man Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1900.

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