Tan Cheng Han, The Law of Agency
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2019.0544 |
| Pages | 150-151 |
| Author | |
| Published date | 01 January 2019 |
This book, written by a leading expert on agency law, focusses principally on the law of Singapore. This review seeks to illustrate why the book is highly relevant for a Scottish readership.
Both agency law in Scotland, and agency law in Singapore, lie broadly within the Common Law tradition. Proof of this can be found in the fact that the English definition of apparent authority is often relied upon in the courts of both countries. Neither country benefits from a large flow of case law, and this is problematic given that both legal systems rely on precedent to develop the law. In both countries, therefore, a new development in English law is looked at with significant interest. If a solution is required to an agency problem in Scots law, it may be appropriate for the courts to look to English law for inspiration. The Scottish courts often do so, see, for example,
Professor Tan's analysis of apparent authority provides a good example of the process described above. Apparent authority is an important part of any system of agency law, acting to protect third parties from the activities of unauthorised agents. The nature of the concept has been highly controversial, however. Orthodoxy, found in cases such as
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