Comparative Research On The Undisclosed Principal And The Brokerage

Due to the diversity in legal tradition, way of thinking and notions, there are sharp differences between the common law system and the civil law system in terms of agency law. However, agency law always centers upon issues such as the rights and duties of the principal, the agent and the third party, and the agency rights and therefore functions alike. With the increasingly accelerated world integration and frequent economic exchanges, the two tradition legal systems have gradually come to the road of convergence to achieve the common legal language and mutually accepted modes of behavior. This trend of convergence has also been reflected in agency law. Analysis shows that the named agency under the common law system is not in essence different from the term direct agency under the civil law system. The differences between the two legal systems are mostly on the unnamed agency, the unnamed agency under the common law system, and the indirect agency and the brokerage under the civil law system.This article begins with a general introduction of the relevant concepts, theories, contents and features of the undisclosed principal and the brokerage. On this basis, this article tries to give a comparison and link of the undisclosed principal and the brokerage and proves that it is possible that either of the two ideas be a reference to the other or integrate with the other. A brief introduction is also given on UNIDROIT's practice to unify the agency law.This article then gives a summary of China's legislation on agency law as status quo, especially the introduction of unnamed agency into the chapter on the contract of mandate and the rules on the brokerage contract in the Contract Law. Based on the comparative research of the undisclosed principal and the brokerage, the article advances that in terms of the modes of behavior and the legal consequences the undisclosed principal and the brokerage may not replace each other, and therefore China's indirect agency system should more comprehensively absorb the rules on the unnamed agency under the Anglo-American law in order to meet the needs of various modern commercial agency activities.