The General Provisions on Purchase and Sale in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

Abstract The author offers a critical examination of the provisions on purchase and sale in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Focusing narrowly on the text of the code, the paper starts with a broad overview of, and commentary on, the provisions and then provides a detailed article-by-article commentary on individual provisions. Potential difficulties are identified (especially with respect to transfer of ownership, remedies, and the code's attempt to blend common and civil law approaches to sale) and suggestions are offered for how the text might be clarified or, in certain cases, substantively changed. In view of the broad similarity between the provisions on sale in the Russian code and the rules on contracts of sale applicable in Western market economies generally, the paper proposes neither far-ranging criticisms nor radical reforms of the Russian law.