Some Considerations for Research on the Sale of Movable Goods

This chapter examines the peculiar remedies applicable to sale of movable goods in favor of the unsatisfied creditor. In particular, Article 1515 of the Italian Civil Code allows the seller to sell the unpaid good to third parties, collect the price and obtain from the defaulting buyer the difference between the agreed price and that obtained from the sale made as default remedy, and compensation for further damages, while Article 1516 entitles the buyer to buy from third parties an item like that agreed with the defaulting seller, ask to the latter payment of the price difference and compensation for further damages. The most attentive scholars pointed out however the changes of the context in which the sale contracts operate, increasingly distant from the model provided by Italian Civil Code and which requires a new action from the Italian legislator. The foregoing determined the new role taken by the Italian Supreme Court and a consequent intensive debate on the system of law sources. The proliferation of sources from quantitative and qualitative points of views leads in fact the Italian Supreme Court to become the natural point of synthesis for jurists, so to satisfy the need for legal foreseeability and certainty.