Page 208 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

LEGAL HUMANISM
scholars by reason of the similarities between sales and lease.224 Dumoulin and Doneau add that generally speaking all commutative contracts give rise to a claim when the performances are not in balance.225 Statutory law varies somewhat on the point by not always granting the remedy in all commutative contracts. Yet, most extend the remedy to lease.226
That cannot be said of another frequently discussed question by humanist scholars. To which objects does the remedy apply? Does it to both movables and immovables or only to the latter? Giphanius identifies that in the France of his time the remedy is reserved for immovables, whereas in the German regions it applies to movables too. Giphanius himself favours the latter. The arguments he uses are exemplary of his humanist approach to the matter, such that they merit a treatment here.
First, the text of C. 4.44.2 mentions the word 'thing (res)', which word has a general meaning including both movables as well as immovables.227 Secondly, the remedy's underlying rationale that an excessive inequity should be forestalled counts for all things, not for immovables exclusively. Thirdly, the Byzantine Basilica and the Greek scholar Harmenopoulos in his Hexabiblion also apply the remedy in the event of movables.228 Giphanius thus makes use of grammar and Greek to make his point. This approach is much more akin to Cujas' methodology, who defended the application of the aedilician remedy for returning the thing to lease by using similar sources.229
Sichardus draws attention to legal practice. Notaries lay down sales contracts about immovables in deeds, signed by a judge. These deeds generally exclude the possibility to
224 Sichardus, Dictata, to C. 4.44.2, no. 9, p. 462: 'In contractibus bonae fidei, ideo dico. Nam in his tantum habet locum lex nostra'; Mynsinger, Observationium centuriae, obs. 6.91, no. 1, p. 362: '... contractus emtionis et venditionis multique alii similer ratione enormis laesionis rescindi valeant'; Wesenbecius, Tractatus et responsa, vol. 6, cons. 262, nos. 41-43, p. 344; Schrader, Consilia, vol. 2, cons. 46, no. 27, p. 666; Donellus, Ad codicis partes, to C. 4.44.2, no. 19, p. 211: 'Erit ergo huic beneficio locus in locatione et conductione de qua minor dubitatio est, cum traditum sit locationem et conductionem iisdem regulis iuris continere quibus et emtio et venditio, l. 2, D. loc. \[D. 19.2.2\]'; Giphanius, Explanatio, to C. 4.44, p. 310 \[right column\]: 'Sed verior mihi quoque videtur eorum sententia qui tam in operum quam in rerum locatione hoc beneficium probent, hac ratione quia in utroque locationis genere causa et ratio benificii nimirum enormis laesio reperiri possit'.
225 Molinaeus, Commentarii, §33, gl. 1, in verb. Droict de relief, no. 46, p. 438: 'Ita in emptore non minus quam in venditore et in omnibus contractibus commutativis'; idem, Tractatus commerciorum, no. 175, p. 166: 'Quid enim aliud venditori precium est, quam rei venditae pensatio, quae debet esse aequivalens, ut iusta sit et aequalis commutatio? Eodom modo e diverso emptori res empta nil aliud est, quam precii conventi pensatio, quae pariter esse debet aequivalens precio, ut sit iusta et aequalis commutatio'; Donellus, Ad codicis partes, to C. 4.44.2, no. 24, p. 211: '...id ad ceteras personas et caussas transferendum sit, si quis in commutationibus rerum duplo minus acceperit, quam dedit et, quod idem est, si duplo plus dederit, quam accepti'.
226 The Ẅurtembergische Landrecht (1555), the Wiedenburgische Landrecht (1607) and the Preußische Landrecht (1620). Cf. Langer, Laesio enormis, p. 59.
227 Giphanius believes that the word fundi ('plot of land') in the same text is only used as an example. Giphanius, Explanatio, to C. 4.44, p. 308 \[below left column\].
228 Giphanius, Explanatio, to C. 4.44, p. 306 \[right column\]: 'Primo, quia initio l. \[C. 4.44.2\], generaliter dicitur Rem, quo nomine certum est contineri tam rem mobilem, quam soli... Secundo, quia ratio huius l. \[C. 4.44.2\] nimirum nimia iniquitas rei et aestimationis habeat locum in omni re. Tertio, quia et in libris Βασιλικῶν et in Harmenopoulo, id est, apud Graecos et apud nostros Interpretes... usus huius legis obtinuerit in omnia rebus'.
229 See 4.2.2.
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