On The Constitutive Requirements Of Agency By Estoppel

Agency by Estoppel is a fundamental part of PRC civil law,which prescribes the attribution principle of legal effects under a peculiar circumstance where the counterpart has reasons to trust that the actor has the power of agency.Such mechanism plays an important role in the protection of transaction safety and the reasonable trust of the bona fide counterpart.However,since the first establishment of the mechanism of Agency by Estoppel in Article 49 of PRC Contract Law,disputes on the constitutive requirements thereof have arisen from both the theoretical cycle and the professional cycle due to the ambiguity of the legislations currently in effect,and no common standard has been reached in the professional cycle.In consideration of the fact that most of the discussion over such topic from the theoretical cycle is from a legislation theory angle,which can only provide limited benefits to the judicial practice,this paper focuses on the interpretative perspective of constitutive requirements of Agency by Estoppel,and strives to reach a conclusion on a practical method of the application and interpretation thereof.This paper is divided into 3 parts,which are the Introduction,the 4 chapters of the main bodyand finally the Conclusion.The Introduction describes mainly the value of the paper,the structure and the pros and cons thereof;Chapter One introduces the mechanism of Agency by Estoppel in PRC civil law and the history of the amendment thereof;Chapter Two is on the Agency by Estoppel in judicial practice,where I study a large number of cases and point out the opinions of the courts as well as their problems;Chapter Three is the disputes from the theoretical cycle,where I introduce and criticize on the current theories;Chapter Four is on the pursuit of a reasonable way of applying the relevant laws,where I reach a conclusion from an interpretative perspective by methods of semantic interpretation,systematic interpretation,historical interpretation and comparative interpretation;The final part is the conclusion.