Les ventes aux encheres

Auction sales

• Auteur / Autrice : Laurence Mauger-Vielpeau
• Direction : Pierre-Yves Gautier
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Droit privé
• Date : Soutenance en 1997
• Etablissement(s) : Caen

Résumé

La particularite des ventes aux encheres ne reside pas dans la publicite qui les entoure. Ces ventes se singularisent par les encheres car elles tendent a obtenir le plus haut prix et aboutissent a la designation automatique du prix et de la personne de l'acquereur. Bien que les ventes aux encheres aient une origine tres ancienne, le legislateur francais n'a pas envisage ce mode particulier de vente lorsqu'il a regi la vente du code civil. Les ventes aux encheres font toutefois l'objet de quelques dispositions eparses, notamment dans l'ancien et le nouveau codes de procedure civile. Si les encheres permettent de distinguer les ventes aux encheres des autres modes de vente et de retenir certaines regles particulieres et communes a toutes les ventes aux encheres, celles-ci doivent etre distinguees les unes des autres car elles ne relevent pas toujours des memes regles de droit. Les ventes forcees ne constituent pas des contrats de vente, mais un autre acte juridique qui peut etre qualifie de vente forcee ou d'expropriation, et sont principalement regies par les dispositions relatives aux ventes sur saisie. Au contraire, les ventes volontaires non judiciaires peuvent etre qualifiees de contrats de vente et sont reglementees, a defaut de texte particulier, par les regles du code civil relatives a ce contrat. Enfin, les ventes volontaires judiciaires constituent egalement des contrats de vente, mais elles ne relevent que subsidiairement du code civil car elles font deja l'objet de regles particulieres figurant a l'ancien comme au nouveau codes de procedure civile. L'etude de la formation et des effets des ventes aux encheres illustre cette diversite.

What gives auction sales their specificity is not to be found in their public character, but in a method of selling which invites competitive bidding. The whole process is geared to fetching the highest price and results in a legally automatic declaration of the purchaser for a known price (equal to the amount of his bid). Although auction sales originate in a remote past, when the french civil code was drafted and a written law of sale was established no specific chapter was devoted to them. Nonetheless, it is possible to point to a few scattered provisions on the subject, e. G. In the old and new codes of civil procedure. Only the existence of a system of competitive bids can tell where a sale is an auction one and, consequently, which rules and regulations they are subjected to. But among the whole class of auction sales, various types should be accounted for. Firstly, as in french law any creditor is entitled to start legal proceedings directed towards a judicial sale of some of his debtor's assets (whether he has a security on the property or not) no such sale taking place by will of a creditor could constitute a + contract of sale ; as defined and dealt with by the + code civil ;. On the opposite, it should be regarded as a legal instrument of its own which would be more rightly called a non-voluntary sale. Non-voluntary sales are expressly regulated by the code of civil procedure in its sections on seizure and realization of a debtor's property. Secondly, by contrast, other sorts of auction sales qualify as + contracts of sale ; ; and, where no specific set of rules applies, provisions in the + code civil ; must be referred to. Finally, sales which take place in court qualify as + contracts of sale ; where they are of a voluntary nature. But statutory provisions (from the + code civil ;) relating to + contracts of sale ; do only apply to fill possible legal gaps as the old and new codes of civil procedure contain provisions relating to them. That legal diversity present in our subject appears strikingly through the study of the formation and legal effects of auction sales.