Anticipatory breach of contract originated from the English-American law system，is an essential component of contract-breaking system in contract law。This system contribute a lot to the value of law by allowing the non-breach parties to adopt measures to reduce loss and promote equity, efficiency and safety, the anticipatory breach influenced many other countries in contract lawmaking and international treaties. The contract law of china, which is passed in 1999, also stipulated the anticipatory breach system for the first time. This is big progress in Chinese legislation. This article mainly studied the anticipatory breach in English-American law system, including the meaning、characteristic、constituents and remedies of anticipated breach. The author also compared the anticipatory breach system, and brought forward some defect in Chinese “Contract Law”.
KEYWORDS：contract law, anticipatory breach, prior performance defense right
