Discuss the importance of the rule nemo dat quod non habet in s.21 of Assignment

Discuss the importance of the rule nemo dat quod non habet in s.21 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Use examples to support your arguments - Assignment Example Commonly refered to as nemo dat, this concept stems from vision of a series of transactions whereby a current owner of property is required to be able to trace back ownership to reflect a chain of legitimate transfers. Further, the chain of transfers should originate from legitimate original possession. With examples, this paper will discuss the importance of nemo dat as well as applicable exceptions as per the provisions of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Nemo dat is mainly concerned with the issue of which of the two parties, the legitimate owner and the innocent buyer, must pay the price of the fraud of a third party (Yap 2008, p. 254). It is a familiar occurrence that legitimate owners of goods are swindled into parting with the goods and, similarly, innocent buyers deceived into buying the goods from a third party. Therefore, the fundamental importance of the nemo dat rule is protecting the true and legitimate owners of property. Then, it also protects property by stipulating that no one can give a title that is better than he himself has (MacLeod 2012, p. 27). The usual scenario of the sale of property is that it is carried out between a willing buyer and either the legitimate owner or their duly authorized representatives. However, situations also occur in which the seller is selling property that does not rightfully belong to him or he does not possess the required right to sell. At that point, the significance of nemo dat is that it will form the basis on which the law will decide whether to favor the original owner or the bona fide buyer (Elliott 2004, p. 382). The rule of nemo dat remains legally binding even in situations where buyers are not aware that the sellers have no right to allege ownership of the property being transacted. In most circumstances, the buyer of property from a seller with no ownership rights will not get the title of ownership but, legally, there are exceptions that can actually grant such buyers the title. Meant to protect