Abstract:

“Signature or seal” is the trust system of written contract in Chinese Contract Law However, this system does not distinguish the essential difference between natural person and legal person, which brings the unfair consequences in practice Based on the perspectives of the legal history and comparative law, the paper makes a systematical analysis of the trust system of written contract, and summarizes the system in China’s ancient law and foreign law, based on which this paper evaluates Chinese current Contract Law It points out the signature will inevitably replace the private seal, owing to the limitations of the private seal and the multidimensional advantages of the signature The Contract Law of our country should clearly clarify that the signature would be the only trust system of natural person’s written contract

Key words: written contract, trust system, signature, private seal