The Study On Misrepresentation In Anglo And American Contract Law

Misrepresentation is the misleading statement leading to a contract made by the party of a contract to the other direction during the negotiation. Misrepresentation in Anglo and American contract law is somewhat similar to a lot of legal concepts such as mistake, fraud, undue influence, false propaganda and misrepresentation in tort law and securities law, but they differ wildly in the events of reasons, the adjustment range , the main responsibility and relief. Therefore misrepresentation in contract law cannot be contained into those above conception to adjuest.There are some different regulations on misrepresentation between Anglo contract law and American contract law .Misrepresentation in Anglo contract law includes three elements. The first is that statements misrepresent the facts, The second is that the statements must be made by the party of a contract to the other direction, and the third is that resulting in a contract must breach the real intention of the direction. Misrepresentation in American contract law also provides a fourth element that the statement must be fraudulent or material. Misrepresentation in Anglo contract law is divided into three types of fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and innocent misrepresentation. Misrepresentation in American contract law is divided into two types of misrepresentation of the statement to be presented to inducement and misrepresentation of relation to the existence of the factum itself. Relief of misrepresentation mainly takes the forms of the avoidance of the contract, the rescission of the contract and compensation of damage, which is decided on types of misrepresentation and the contract law.Compared with the system of fraud, misrepresentation bears the more specific elements, the more comprehensive type, the flexibler legal effect, and the broader adjustment, which is beneficial to the legislation of China. Firstly, to be systematic, the legislation of China should concentrate the clauses of fraud upon the contract law. Secondly, the contract law in China should learn from misrepresentation in Anglo and American contract law that the conception of "fraud" should be instead of the conception of "misrepresentation" , and misrepresentation should be divided into four types of fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, innocent misrepresentation and misrepresentation of relation to the existence of the factum itself. Finally, compensation of damage should be the main type of relief means in misrepresentation, and punitive compensation of damage should also be applied to fraudulent misrepresentation.In short, the provisions of misrepresentation can make up for the deficiencies in our existing laws, and better the contract law in China.