THE INSTITUTE OF THE REPRESENTATION IN THE THEORY AND IN THE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

Owing to its abstraction, the institute of representation appeared in the legislation and in the law theory in its present form rather late. There are essential differences between the regulation of this institute in the European continental law and in the Anglo-Saxon law and they come from the fact that this term developed from different theories in these areas. The biggest impact on its form in European continental law had the theory of German theorist Paul Laband, whereas this term developed from the identity theory in the Anglo-Saxon law. There is a fairly uniform regulation of this institute in continental Europe, but it is still quite different from the rules in common law. As regards the law of the European Union, EU authorities harmonized regulation of this issue. The representation is regulated by the Principles of European Contract Law in which there was made a compromise between the rules in these two legal areas. This paper comprises some theoretical explanations of this institute, with special reference to the two leading theories, as well as the rules relating to this issue in the law of the European Union.