The estoppel by representation: a comparative study of French and English private law.

Summary Estoppel by representation is an English rule created by equity. It protects the legitimate confidence of the person who has acted on the basis of the unequivocal behavior of a person, by preventing him from having later, in court, an attitude incompatible with the one previously adopted. The inadmissibility of the contradictory claim estoppel by representation is clearly distinguished from certain mechanisms that also sanction a misleading appearance; as such, it is an autonomous rule within English law. The French authors mainly question the potential of the theory of appearance or abuse of right to achieve the same result as that of estoppel by representation. However, this device is not, like the theory of appearance, a mode of validation of rights, but a sanction for inconsistent behavior; nor is it a fault generating liability as can be the case with the theory of abuse of rights. Moreover, if the sanction of fraud against the law and the maxim nemo auditur propr1am turpitudinem allegans evoke that of estoppel by representation, these two rules do not enshrine any significant protection of legitimate confidence. In French private law, there is no known rule that can be directly compared to estoppel by representation. However, there are French decisions that are clearly based on the idea of estoppel by representation. Better still, there are cases comparable to some English cases that have used this mechanism. Thus, it can be argued that estoppel by representation has made its appearance in French private law jurisprudence and is waiting to be formally recognized.