| This essay mainly focuses on the neodoxy of Reasonable Expectation( thereinafter "RE") principle in Anglo-American contract law. During the last century, with the shift of contract notion from absolute contract freedom to contract justice and restricted contract freedom by judicial adjustment, the concept and principle of RE in contract law has developed gradually. Notwithstanding its immaturity in Anglo-American contract law, today the principle of RE has achieved great success in legislation and judicature as well as in academic fields. For the lack of systemic analysis of this principle in China, through this essay I intend to introduce and evaluate the RE concept and principle comprehensively by discussing its evolution, functions, status, practices and applications in current Anglo-American contract law. Another important issue of this essay is to discuss the prospects of the RE principle respectively in Anglo-American contract law and Chinese contract law. Therefore the framework of this essay is as simple as the following: the development history of the RE principle in Anglo-American contract law; the definition and characters of the concept and principle of RE in contract law; its historical roles, functions and possible status in Anglo-American contract law; its practices and applications in current Anglo-American contract law ; and its influence to Chinese contract law. These above issues are also the emphasis of this essay. In Part I of the essay, I reviews the four development phases of the RE principle in the history of Anglo-American contract law, which includes: Corbin's arguments about the RE concept and principle in 1950s; the rapid rise of the principle in American insures law in 1970s; the research of the principle in general contract in America; and the boom of the principle in England contract law since 1990s. This section focuses on the origin and development of the RE concept and principle and the relevant comments on it by scholars and courts, especially by those of England. In Part II, based on the research of scholars and courts in England and America, I conclude the concept of RE in contract law as: the due mental expectations of contract parties, third party and/or the public which derived from the existing current laws and regulations, well-recognized social morals, customs, usages and practices in the course of contractual relationship. Therefore, the principle of RE ,based on the core concept of"Reasonable Expectation", holds that the main purpose of contract law is to protect the parties' reasonable expectations in contractual relationship, and the litigators or courts involving in contract issues should utmost respect and realize those reasonable expectations. Further I generalize and ague three essential characters of the reasonable concept and principle: external objectivity, provable vindicability and multiple conflicts. In Part III, I mainly ague the roles and functions of the RE principle in the background of the fall of the Anglo-American traditional contract theory during 20th century. As a result, I find out that the RE principle could serve great justifications for the evolution of modern Anglo-American contract law theory. First, the RE principle adjusts the parties' unbalanced bargaining power and give courts practical criterion to determine the effectiveness of certain standard contract clauses. Secondly, the RE principle duly justifies the pre-contract obligation and acts as good coadjutant of the good faith principle to restrain the courts' discretion. Finally, the RE principle creates the doctrine of promissory estoppel, which fatally caused the death of the traditional consideration contract theory. In Part IV, I put emphasis on the issue of the possible status of the RE principle in Anglo-American contract law. The principle's objectivity-subjectivity character leads itself to be a prominent criterionto balance the contract formalism and substantial contract justice. Therefore I propose the RE principle to be one of the fundamental principles in Anglo-American contract law. In Part V, I discuss some concrete practices and applications of the RE principle in current Anglo-American contract law. Though these examples are illustrative and by no means exhaustive, it demonstrates the theoretical and practical values of the principle to some extent. In Part VI, in consideration of the status quo of current Chinese contract, I conclude that in Chinese contract law system the principle of RE seems not to be as prosperous as it has been in Anglo-American contract law. Moreover, despite of my objection to input the principle into Chinese contract law system as a whole , I do advice Chinese contract law could learn a lot from the underlying notion of the principle and I illustrate several concrete applications ,such as to regulate standard contracts, to promote the functions of the informal contract sources( social morals, customs, usages and practices) , etc. In conclusion, I summarize the concept and principle of RE in contract law once again, and holds that due to its objectivity-subjectivity characters ,the RE principle does open a wide development way for Anglo-American contract law. To the prospect of the principle, I predict that it mainly depends on the future endeavors of England scholars and the attitudes of England courts. Finally, as to Chinese contract law, theRE principle deserves adequate attentions, and can also be prudently applied in regulating classical standard contracts for purpose of safeguard substantial contract justice.
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