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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §19.4.1.pr-19.4.1.4

Structural Differences Between Sale and Barter

Passage 2886 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus discusses the structural differences between sale and exchange (barter) from the perspectives of the distinction between price and goods, the origin of obligation (consensual vs. real), and the legal remedies for non-performance.

[PAULUS libro trigesimo secundo ad edictum. ] §19.4.1.prSicut aliud est uendere, aliud emere, alius emptor, alius uenditor, ita pretium aliud, aliud merx.
[PAULUS in the thirty-second book on the Edict.] Just as selling is one thing, buying another, the buyer one person, the seller another, so price is one thing, the merchandise another.
at in permutatione discerni non potest, uter emptor uel uter uenditor sit, multumque differunt praestationes.
But in exchange, it cannot be distinguished who is the buyer or who is the seller, and the performances differ greatly.
emptor enim, nisi nummos accipientis fecerit, tenetur ex uendito, uenditori sufficit ob euictionem se obligare possessionem tradere et purgari dolo malo, itaque, si euicta res non sit, nihil debet: in permutatione uero si utrumque pretium est, utriusque rem fieri oportet, si merx, neutrius.
For the buyer, unless he makes the coins the property of the recipient, is held liable under the action on sale, whereas for the seller, it is sufficient to bind himself against eviction, to deliver possession, and to be cleared of malicious intent, and therefore, if the thing is not evicted, he owes nothing. In exchange, however, if each is the price, the thing of each must become the property of the other; if each is merchandise, neither.
sed cum debeat et res et pretium esse, non potest permutatio emptio uenditio esse, quoniam non potest inueniri, quid eorum merx et quid pretium sit, nec ratio patitur, ut una eademque res et ueneat et pretium sit emptionis.
But since there must be both merchandise and a price, exchange cannot be a sale and purchase, since it cannot be found which of them is the merchandise and which is the price, nor does reason permit one and the same thing to be both sold and to be the price of the purchase.
§19.4.1.1Unde si ea res, quam acceperim uel dederim, postea euincatur, in factum dandam actionem respondetur.
Hence, if that thing which I received or gave is afterwards evicted, it is answered that an action on the facts should be given.
§19.4.1.2Item emptio ac uenditio nuda consentientium uoluntate contrahitur, permutatio autem ex re tradita initium obligationi praebet: alioquin si res nondum tradita sit, nudo consensu constitui obligationem dicemus, quod in his dumtaxat receptum est, quae nomen suum habent, ut in emptione uenditione, conductione, mandato.
Likewise, sale and purchase is contracted by the mere consent of those agreeing, but exchange provides the beginning of an obligation from the delivered thing; otherwise, if the thing has not yet been delivered, we would say that an obligation is established by mere consent, which is accepted only in those contracts that have their own name, such as sale and purchase, hire, and mandate.
§19.4.1.3Ideoque Pedius ait alienam rem dantem nullam contrahere permutationem.
And therefore Pedius says that he who gives a thing belonging to another contracts no exchange.
§19.4.1.4Igitur ex altera parte traditione facta si alter rem nolit tradere, non in hoc agemus ut res tradita nobis reddatur, sed in id quod interest nostra illam rem accepisse, de qua conuenit: sed ut res contra nobis reddatur, condictioni locus est quasi re non secuta.
Therefore, when delivery has been made on one side, if the other party is unwilling to deliver the thing, we shall not sue for the purpose of having the delivered thing returned to us, but for our interest in having received that thing about which it was agreed; but so that the thing may be returned to us in turn, there is room for a personal action for return as if the purpose had not followed.

Notes

  1. §19.4.1.prnisi nummos accipientis fecerit — "unless he makes the coins the property of the recipient". In Roman law of sale, the buyer's obligation is to transfer ownership of the price (coins) to the seller (fecerit accipientis), whereas the seller's obligation is not the transfer of ownership itself, but merely to deliver possession and guarantee against eviction (possessionem tradere et ob euictionem se obligare). This asymmetry of obligations is the key distinction from barter, where both parties must transfer ownership.
  2. §19.4.1.2ex re tradita — "from the delivered thing". In contrast to consensual contracts like sale, hire, or mandate (which are contracted nudo consensu), exchange (permutatio) is a real innominate contract, meaning that the legal obligation (obligationi) is generated only upon the actual delivery of a thing by one of the parties.
  3. §19.4.1.4in id quod interest... condictioni locus est — A contrast between two remedies in case of non-performance by one party after delivery by the other. It shows the choice between an action on the facts (actio in factum) to claim the performance interest (id quod interest... accepisse) and a personal action for return (condictio ob rem dati re non secuta) to recover the delivered thing.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §19.4.1.pr-19.4.1.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:19.4.1.pr-19.4.1.4

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