PhD student: Dr C.J. de Bruijn

Promotors: Prof J.J. Hallebeek, Prof A.J.B. Sirks

Duration: 1/2/2011 - 31/1/2016

PhD defence: Amsterdam, 26/10/2018

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to gain a reliable insight into the emergence of common legal concepts concerning the liability for latent defects in sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth-century Europe. In several continental-European jurisdictions a vendor is currently liable for latent defects in sold goods. Roman civil law already knew of regulations concerning the sale of goods with defects not known by the seller since the Republican period (2nd century B.C.). However, unequivocal rules concerning such liability, especially those related to the prescription period of remedies and the assessment of price reduction, were not developed until the early-modern period (16th-18th centuries). In the light of the upcoming European Consumer Rights Directive it is recommendable to investigate the historical development of these rules, since, ultimately, the different national rules which are in the near future being harmonized for a large part have their origins in the same ius commune-tradition.