Mindy Chen-Wishart’s latest volume in the Studies in the Contract Laws of Asia series, Invalidity, has been published by OUP

Studies in the Contract Laws of Asia provides an authoritative account of the contract law regimes of selected Asian jurisdictions, including the major centres of commerce where limited critical commentaries have been published in the English language. Each volume in the series aims to offer an insider’s perspective into specific areas of contract law – remedies, formation, parties, contents, vitiating factors, change of circumstances, illegality, and public policy – and explores how these diverse jurisdictions address common problems encountered in contractual disputes. A concluding chapter draws out the convergences and divergences, and other themes. All the Asian jurisdictions examined have inherited or adopted the common law or civil law models of European legal systems. Scholars of legal transplant will find a mine of information on how received law has developed after the initial adaptation and transplant process, including the mechanisms of and influences affecting these developments. At the same time, many points of convergence emerge. These provide good starting points for regional harmonization projects.

Volume IV of Studies in the Contract Laws of Asia, edited by Mindy together with Hiroo Sono (Hokkaido University), and Stefan Vogenauer (Max Planck Institute), deals with factors affecting the validity of contracts (mistake, fraud, misrepresentation, coercion, and unfair exploitation) in the laws of China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Typically, each jurisdiction is covered in two chapters; the first deals with erroneous beliefs, while the second deals with reprehensible conduct of one of the contracting parties.

Further details about the book, which includes chapters by Burton Ong, Gary Bell, Kelry Loi, and Mindy, may be found here.