In a previous post I wrote about the dangers of using contracts drafted for another purpose as China contracts. This is particularly risky with China contracts and I had yet another real life example of a defective China contract this week.
Simple China contracts can be good
A good friend, a small businessman, provides services to large companies in China. He has a simple two and a half page China contract that is governed by Chinese law and provides for Chinese courts as the means of resolving disputes. It is appropriate for the type of work that he does and the sums of money involved.
Recently he approached me with a ten page contract for comment. He had submitted his usual China contract to the local China office of very large multinational company but had been told that “the legal department” had a rule that their China contract had to be used for all transactions. My friend thought that their China contract was overly complicated, but it was an important new client and just wanted me to check it before he signed.
Not all “standard” China contracts are good
I had a quick look, suggested a couple of minor changes, and smiling to myself, said it was OK for him to sign. I explained that I was smiling because the China contract was unenforceable against my friend, but he could take action and have a judgment enforced against the other party, if it came to that.
How could it be that a large multinational company was insisting on using a China contract that provided them with no real protection? Standard documents is the simple answer. Their China contract was created for a different legal environment. In particular it provided for home country law, and the exclusive jurisdiction of home country courts. Unfortunately, sovereignty made that provision practically useless
Sovereignty sounds old fashioned, but it is at the core of international transactions, and cannot be ignored. Practically, sovereignty just means that each country has the power to do what it likes within its borders. A necessary consequence of this is that a judgment of a court in one country has no effect in another country unless that country agrees to it. Agreements of this type are typically called treaties – judicial assistance treaties. Without a treaty in place, or an agreement on a case by case basis, a judgment made in one country will not be enforceable in another country.
If not correctly drafted, China contracts may be unenforceable
To return to the China contract imposed on my friend. It provided for home country law, and the exclusive jurisdiction of home country courts. In signing, that is what the parties were agreeing to. But the country concerned has no agreement in place that would permit a judgment against my friend to be enforced in China. He has no assets in their home country so any judgment there would be empty. The multinational could not take action in China, because by their own “standard” China contract, they had ruled that out.
My friend however has no such problems. He can take action in the home country courts and that is where at lest some of the multinational’s assets are located. His judgment will not be empty.
So how is it that a company with virtually unlimited resources can end up in this position? A kind response is lack of attention to detail (other responses might be less generous). The relationships between the parties are such that there is really very little likelihood that either party would resort to litigation if there was a dispute. However the danger with misapplied “standard “ contracts is that they lead to a baseless sense of security – no-one sets out to have unenforceable ten page China contracts, but it happens, as this case illustrates.
Filing cabinets full of unenforceable contracts?
I imagine that the multinational company concerned must have filing cabinets in China full of these signed China contracts, all of them with one thing in common – they are unenforceable against the other party. At least some are likely to be for matters where failure to perform will have serious consequences.
China, as a sovereign country has its own rules and requirements and ignoring them has consequences. China contracts drafted without due regard to the laws of China are almost certainly going to be defective, at best and may be totally unenforceable. This real life example, setting out the most common form of defective contract, confirms that.
Take away points
Here are a few:
- The legal department does not always get it right with standard China contracts.
- Attention to detail is important for effective China contracts.
- Contracts that are sound elsewhere may be unenforceable in China.
- There is no substitute for on the ground China contract experience.
GB
© 2014 Graham Brown. All rights reserved.
Tags: China Business 101, Contract mistakes, Contracts, Unenforceable contracts