COMPRAVENDITA. — The sale, or c., is the contract by which one person (the seller) transfers ownership of a thing or another right to another person (the buyer) in exchange for payment of a price (art. 1470 of the Civil Code). This contract, which is among the most important, is “onerous” and, by its nature, “non-aleatory” (v. CONTRATTO).
In Italian civil law, the c. generally effects the transfer of ownership as soon as the contracting parties have given their consent, unless the thing sold is a genus, that is, a quantity of fungible things (v. cosa); in that case, the things must also be identified (arts. 1376–78). It is never necessary, however, that the thing actually be delivered or that its price be paid. The same principles are followed by foreign legislation as well; only, in the case of the sale of immovable property, some legal systems make the transfer of ownership subject to registration of the contract in special public registers.
The seller is obliged: 1) to deliver the thing to the buyer; 2) to cause the buyer to acquire ownership of the thing, if acquisition is not an immediate effect of the contract; 3) to guarantee the buyer in the event of eviction (that is, where a third party asserts rights over the thing), or where the thing is affected by defects that render it unfit for use or substantially diminish its value (art. 1476). For his part, the buyer must pay the agreed price.
The problems that this very widely used contract presents for moral theology are many: they concern the just price, competition, hoarding, profit, auction (v. LICITAZIONE), monopoly, agency, representation, etc. (v. the individual entries).
For the c. of ecclesiastical goods V. BENI ECCLESIASTICI, V. SIMONIA.