영미법에서의 외관적 권한법리와 우리 민법 제125조의 적용요건에 관한 검토

A study on the doctrine of apparent authority under English-American Law and the section 125 under Korean Civil Law

Under English-American Law, the agent is said to have authority to act and this authority constitutes a power to affect the principal s legal relations with third parties. The authority of an agent may be actual(express or implied) authority or apparent authority(also called “ostensible authority”). Where the agent s authority results from a manifestation of assent that he should represent or act for the principal expressly or impliedly made by the principal to the agent himself, the authority is called actual authority. But the agent may also have authority resulting from such a manifestation made by the principal to a third party; such authority is called apparent authority. Apparent authority arise where a third party is induced to enter into a transaction with a principal by a party who appears to have authority to act but who in fact lacks such authority. Under this doctrine, where a principal represents that another has authority, he may be bound as against a third party by the acts of that another person within the authority which that person appears to have, though he had not in fact given that person such authority. This idea is significantly differently from that of actual authority. The notion of apparent authority is essentially confined to the relationship between principal and third party:the principal may under it be bound by unauthorised acts of the agent. Apparent authority exists when (ⅰ)principal makes a manifestation, which somehow reaches a third party and (ⅱ)which causes the third party to reasonably believe tha another party(“apparent agent”)is indeed authorised to act for the principal. This requirement is same in Korea civil act §125.