Research On The Legal Status Of The Buyer In Ownership Retention System

Retention of title is a special trading. As a party to the contract, the legal statusof the buyer is also have a certain degree of particularity. During the performance ofthe contract, the buyer is in a hybrid position. In accordance with the agreement ofthe saving clause, he is not the owner. But he can possess, use or conditional disposeof the subject matter, enjoy the reasonable expectations of the future ownership.Those statuses led to the non-breaking debate of the academia. The key to the debateis how to protect the buyer from unlawful infringement of the seller and a third partybefore getting the final ownership. Thus German scholars created the concept of theright to expect, in order to overview the buyer’s status apart from his right ofrequesting the transfer of ownership right and the obligation of paying the price ofthe good. So, is it necessary to command the legal status of the buyer as a right toexpect? Therefore, the first need of the analysis of the legal status of the buyer is toanalyze the rights of the buyer in the buyer-seller relationship and then to make areasonable definition to the nature of their rights in order to getting a clearunderstanding of their status. On this basis, we need to analyze the rights andobligations among the buyer, the seller, and the third party so as to clarify what levelof protection should be subject to the buyer, the buyer’s right to the disposition of thesubject. Thus we can make balance of the interests of the seller, the buyer and thethird party. This article analyzed the legal status of the buyer on the macro and micro level,and discussed in three chapters.The first chapter is an overview with the retention of title system. It mainlyintroduced the basic content of the retention of title system, and defined its nature. Inthis chapter, the author introduced the basic content and functionality of the retentionof title system based on the provisions of the current applicable PRC law, andanalyzed the differences of the retention of title conditional sale, finance leases, andguarantees. It analyzed different doctrines on the nature of the retention of title, andcomment on those various doctrines, thus making clear that the retention of titlesystem has reserved both creditors properties and real right. From the view ofcreditor properties, it’s a bilateral contract to fulfill the use of defense. Judging fromthe view of real right, it’s a kind of atypical guarantee.The second chapter is the legal analysis of the buyer’s legal status, mainlydefined the nature of the legal status of the buyer. In this chapter, the authorintroduced academia debate on this issue by over viewing the legal status of thebuyer, gave a brief introduction to the different theories of academia and made acomment of those theories respectively, thus explicating that the buyer’s status is notthe so-called right to expect. The right of the buyer is mainly a manifestation ofcontract claims. The buyer enjoys a "first effect" for the subject matter in accordancewith the terms of the retention. The buyer at the same time is the person inpossession of the subject matter. His protection can be obtained by means of thetenure system.The third chapter analyzed the buyer’s legal status on the microscopic aspect,especially the rights and obligations among the buyer, the seller and the third person,including the protection of the rights of the buyer by the infringement of the seller ora third party, the protection of the buyer in bankruptcy proceedings of the seller, andthe buyer’s right to dispose the subject matter.