Consignments and the Draft Common Frame of Reference

Abstract

One of the novelties of Book IX of the most recent achievement of European efforts aimed at harmonization of private laws, the Draft Common Frame of Reference, concerns the subjection of some types of consignments to secured transactions law. The paper endeavors to unearth, what main dilemmas are corollary to, and what factors may justify transplantation of a solution from a system based on ‘functional approach’ – Article 9 of the American Uniform Commercial Code – into a law predominantly still based on system thinking (legal dogmatism).

Keywords: consignment, harmonization of European private law, draft common frame of reference, uniform commercial code of the United States of America, consignment as a secured transaction, transplantation, function approach, legal dogmatism, behavioral economics, ostensible ownership (false wealth