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In commercial law, a principal is a person, legal or natural, who authorizes an agent to act to create one or more legal relationships with a third party.This branch of law is called agency and relies on the common law proposition qui facit per alium, facit per se (from Latin: "he who acts through another, acts personally").
A business owner often relies on an employee or another person to conduct a business. In the case of a corporation, since a corporation can only act through natural person agents, the principal is bound by the contract entered into by the agent, so long as the agent performs within the scope of the agency.
An agency agreement is a legal contract creating a fiduciary relationship whereby the first party ("the principal") agrees that the actions of a second party ("the agent") binds the principal to later agreements made by the agent as if the principal had himself personally made the later agreements. [1]
Mutual consent, also known as ratification and meeting of the minds, is typically established through the process of offer and acceptance. However, contracts can also be implied in fact, as discussed below. At common law, the terms of a purported acceptance must be the "mirror image" of the terms of the offer.
Legal jurisdictions which provide for apparent authority include the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Africa.The doctrine of apparent authority is based on the concept of estoppel, thus, it prevents the principal from denying the existence of agency to a third party, provided that a representation, as to the agent's authority, has been made by him to the third ...
A binding agreement between actors in international law is known as a treaty. [3] Contract law, the field of the law of obligations concerned with contracts, is based on the principle that agreements must be honoured. [4] Like other areas of private law, contract law varies between jurisdictions.
In law, an agreement in principle is a stepping stone to a contract. Such agreements with regard to the principle are usually considered fair and equitable. Even if not all details are known, an agreement in principle may, for example, outline a schedule of royalties. [1]
Whether the two parties have reached agreement on the terms or whether a valid offer has been made is a legal question. In some jurisdictions, courts use criteria known as 'the objective test', which was explained in the leading English case of Smith v. Hughes. [3] [4] In Smith v. Hughes, the court emphasised that the important thing in ...