Agency By Estoppel

With the prosperity of commodity economy and the development of the agency systems, an institution named apparent agency appeared in Germany at the last years of the 19* century, which had its own historical background. The establishment of the apparent agency in Chinese newly enacted contract law is an embodiment that in the process of the market economy we have been paying much importance on the protection of the transaction safety. In the system of continental law the apparent agency is generally thought as the unauthorized agency, however, according to this paper, it would belong to the authorized agency, whether from the perspectives of the cause, consequence or the paradigm of the legislature about this form of agency. One of the reasons of the theoretical controversies over the component parts of apparent agency, is that there are different perspectives about this institution's actual effects on the social life and its reasonable alternatives in legislation. The theory of two-parts emphasizes the protection of the third party, while the theory of three-parts pays attention to the balance of interests between the agented and! the third party. The new contract makes provisions in terms of the former. In addition, according to the knowledge of the prominent differences between the civil actions and the commercial actions, apparent agency has to protect different safeties in these different department of law, so that it will include the distinct component parts. There are many sorts of apparent agencies and it can be divided three kinds from the cause, that is, the form of authorized, the form of over-powered and the form of continued. The effects of apparent agency is the purpose of the judicial process. The agented himself must be responsible for the legal consequences of the actions of the agent and the third party can require the remedies from the agented, so is the relationship between the agented ang the agent. There are differences between apparent agency and unauthorized agency, between apparent agency and other agencies by operation of law. Finally, as to the range of application and the identification of the third-party's justifications, and as to the internet agent, this paper has made relevant analysis within the field of the apparent agency.