The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

Civil Law 87and also a provision to give effect to the doctrine of" unjust enrichment " or " unjust benefit" on thebasis of the circumstances giving rise to a quasicontract.SALE OF GOODS AND PARTNERSHIPThe chapter in the Act dealing with the sale of goodswhich was later repealed represented, as was saidwhen the Bill was introduced, " the English law onthe subject disembarrassed of the inexpressible confusionand intricacy which is thrown on every part ofit by the vague language of the Statute of Frauds." S3Conditions in India rapidly changed after the passingof the Contract Act in 1872 and the provisions inregard to sale of goods were found to be inadequate.The English law relating to the sale of goods whichwas the basis of the Indian law as enacted in 1872had itself passed through important changes and wascodified in 1893." The legislation in England discardedsome of the old common law rules and adaptedothers to suit them to the practices and conditionsof modern trade. The important colonies and overseasdominions enacted laws which were in substanceadaptations of the English Sale of Goods Act. Itappears that a number of states in the United Statesenacted in 1906 a uniform Sales Act based very largelyon the English Act. The virtual adoption of theEnglish statute in other countries indicated that itsprovisions were eminently suited to the needs ofmodern trade and commerce. Indeed the English53 Quoted in Rankin, op. cit., p. 95.»* Sale of Goods Act (56 & 57 Viet. c. 71).