Description

The UK Supreme Court in a case called PST Energy Shipping LLC v OW Bunker Malta Ltd (The Res Cogitans) held that a contract containing a reservation of title clause was not a contract of sale if it gave permission for the receiver of the goods to consume at least part of them before payment and therefore before the property in the goods passed to the receiver. It was instead a so-called sui generis contract of supply subject to no statutory coverage. Large numbers of contracts providing credit on title reservation terms are affected, eg the supply of raw materials to a manufacturer on a just in time basis; the supply of stock in trade by a wholesaler to a retailer. An entire body of law parallel to the Sale of Goods Act will have to be developed.

About The Speaker

Michael Bridge
Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
National University of Singapore

Having obtained his bachelors and masters degrees from the London School of Economics, Michael started his academic career at the Universities of Leicester and Leeds before moving to Canada, where he held the position of Professor of Law at McGill University, Montreal. On his return to England, he was the Hind Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Nottingham, and Head of the Law Department for several years, later the Professor of Commercial Law at University College London, where he was also Executive Dean of the Faculty of Laws. He is currently a Professor Law at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law, as well as the Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the London School of Economics.