Pattern:Contract Pattern

Description

An English description of the definition (what distinguishes this sense of the term?).

A contract is a legal document that specifies some agreement(s) between two or more parties. The aim of the Contract Pattern is not to formalize the semantics of all possible involved legal concepts, but rather to enable to representation of the general structure and contents of a particular contract. The Contract Pattern adopts the definition of Contract specified in the Financial Business Ontology (FIBO) [8] specified at: https://spec.edmcouncil.org/fibo/ontology/FND/Agreements/Contracts/ with a key modification that a Contract is defined as a type of Document and is distinct from an Agreement (not a subclass, as specified in FIBO).

Key Concepts and Classes

A Contract is a document with the additional following properties: • specifiesAgreement: identifies the Agreement(s) that are specified by some Contract. • hasParty: identifies the person(s) and/or organization(s) that are involved in the Contract. • hasSignatory: identifies the Person(s) responsible for signing the Contract. • hasContractualElement: identifies the decomposition of a Contract into more precise parts. • isValidFor: identifies the Interval in time over which the Contract is valid for, if applicable. • isExecutedOn: identifies the Interval or Instant in time at which the terms in the Contract are executed, if applicable. A ContractualElement represents a part of a contract. Therefore, it can only exist in the context of some Contract. • hasContractText: identifies the excerpt of text from the Contract that corresponds to the Contractual Element. A ContractualElement may be more precisely identified as: • ISO5087-2:ConditionPrecedent: a part of the contract that identifies conditions that must be met in order for the contract to take effect. • ContractualCommitment: a part of the Contract that identifies some Agreement between the parties. • ISO5087-2:ContractualDefinition: a part of the Contract that defines key terms that are referred to in the Contract. • NonBindingTerm: a part of the Contract that is not legally binding. • Representation: a part of the Contract that specifies some assertions that are taken to be true at the time of the contract and serve to influence a party’s decision to enter into the Contract. • Warranty: a part of the Contract that promises some indemnification if an assertion made in the Contract is false.

Has Class(es)

Contract, ContractualElement, ISO5087-2:ConditionPrecedent, ContractualCommitment, ISO5087-2:ContractualDefinition, NonBindingTerm, Representation, Warranty

Status

Pending Approval

Supplementary Figures

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