By Graham Bradfield and Karin Lehmann

Cape Town: Juta 

(2012) 3rd edition

Price: R320 (incl VAT)

270 pages (soft cover)

The first edition of Principles of the Law of Sale and Lease was published in 1998 and, as with the first edition, the latest instalment offers students and practitioners a succinct statement of the South African common law of sale and lease (as at 30 June 2012). The need to author the latest edition of Principles of the Law of Sale and Lease arises from two significant developments in South Africa since the publication of the first edition.

First is South Africa’s re-entry into the international community in 1994 and the impact this had on commerce in South Africa and the broadening of international sales in terms of international law and various treaties.

Secondly, academics have had to take account of the increasing inroads on the common law made by local legislation, the most common of which pertains to the Alienation of Land Act 68 of 1981, the Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999, the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 and the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

The aim of the third edition, like its predecessors, is not to be a comprehensive treatment of the areas surrounding sale and lease in South African law, but to provide practitioners and students with a useful introduction to the long-standing areas of law that apply in respect of these commercially important areas of the law.

What appears useful in this edition is the authors’ integration of various consumer legislative provisions relating to contracts of sale and lease, and how such provisions interact with existing common law principles. Although many aspects of the existing consumer legislation has not yet been dealt with by South Africa’s High Courts, the authors, through existing academic articles and a professional opinion, have attempted to provide the reader with a useful interpretation of the relevant provisions and an insight into how the courts may interpret these.

The third edition of Principles of the Law of Sale and Lease is a useful addition to the library of any commercial practitioner, as well as a good ‘first port of call’ for law students looking in depth at issues of either sale or lease.

The book is well written and easy to follow.

Paul Crosland is an attorney at Webber Wentzel in Johannesburg.

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2013 (June) DR 60.