Good faith acquisition of ownership in a car under german law (according to the italian judge): note to Tribunale di Ivrea, 20 april 2019, n° 416

Abstract

The commented decision by the Tribunale di Ivrea, of 20 April 2019, contains three maxims: (i) under Art. 51(1) of Law 218/1995, good faith acquisition of ownership in a movable good (in that case, a motor vehicle) is governed by the law of the State where the good is situated; (ii) the court-appointed expert’s opinion on foreign law goes beyond the assigned tasks where it examines the evidence and applies the rules to the facts, tasks which are not entrusted to the expert and reserved to the judge; (iii) the concept of good faith in § 932 BGB is comparable to that in Art. 1147 C.C.