ABSTRACT
The law relating to the sale of goods in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is mostly contained in the Goods Act (Ch 251). Up to 1951, the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea had separate, although similar, sale of goods legislation: Sale of Goods Ordinance 1921 and Goods Ordinance 1924, respectively. The Goods Ordinance 19511 (which became the “Goods Act”) repealed and replaced both pieces of legislation. This Act, just as the previous legislation, was a reproduction of the English Sale of Goods Act of 1893.2
However, the Goods Act contains other provisions (ss 59-69), which were adopted from certain provisions of the English Bills of Lading Act 18853
and the Factors Act 1889.4
The English Sale of Goods Act 1893 was a code in the sense that it was a comprehensive and authoritative summary of this branch of English commercial law.5 Hence, the Goods Act reflects English commercial law in the late nineteenth century. The Sale of Goods Act, ergo the Goods Act, was not intended to be exhaustive of the law relating to sale of goods. Section 58(2)6
of the Goods Act expressly declares that the common law of England (including the law merchant), in particular the law of agency and the effects of fraud, misrepresentation, duress, coercion, mistake or other invalidating cause, continues to apply to contracts for the sale of goods. Obviously, the common law only applies to the extent that it is not inconsistent with express provisions of the Goods Act.
