Delivery, Property and Risk in the Law of Sale

Directive n. 2011/83/EU, commonly known as the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD), increases the purchaser’s protection against any event which might occur to the goods sold during the period between the parties’ agreement on sale and the consumer’s actual reception of them (Articles 18 and 20 CRD). This Article analyses whether it would be advisable to reform such national legal systems, like the one based on Italian Civil Code which not only follows the principle res perit domino, or casum sentit dominus as it relates to the passing of risk, but also combines it with the consent’s real effects regarding the transfer of ownership due to the contract of sale. Such a reform, by extending the criterion of delivery as a general risk rule of sale, would satisfy the need for full harmoniza- tion, not only inside the single national system considered (in Italy, as of 13 June 2014, d lgs n 21/2014, implementing Directive n 2011/83/EU, innovates Articles 63 and 61 it cod cons which are the Italian Consumer Code’s rules regarding risk), but also from a European Contract Law perspective.