Can AI systems form contracts, who is legally responsible when they do, and what happens when an automated transaction goes badly wrong?
This video explains Professor Tan Cheng-Han's 2026 article, "COVID-19, Agentic Artificial Intelligence and Contract Formation," published in The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law.
Using Quoine v B2C2 as the central case study, the paper looks at the broader structure of AI contracting in common law:
- whether agentic AI should be treated as a legal agent
- when a platform operator may be acting on behalf of users instead
- how automated contract formation fits within ordinary contract doctrine
- why mistake doctrine may become the main safeguard against aberrant outcomes
Topics covered:
- generative AI versus agentic AI
- legal agency and platform responsibility
- Quoine v B2C2
- tool theory and extended assent
- automated transactions legislation
- unilateral mistake and equitable relief
- UCITA as a conceptual reference point
- how common law may adapt to increasingly autonomous systems
Source:
Tan Cheng-Han, "COVID-19, Agentic Artificial Intelligence and Contract Formation," The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (2026).
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