Pre-Contractual Agreements: How to Keep Out of the Woods
Article from: OGEL 4 (2009), in Contract Management, International Petroleum Contracts
Introduction
One can imagine the scenario. As counsel for a company, you learn that your company's business people have signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") regarding a potential transaction in the fabled, and oil-rich, country of Fredonia. Your company's business people made sure to follow your instructions, and hence ensured that the MOU included language stating that the MOU was subject to execution of a contract and/or was "just" an "agreement to negotiate". Given that this is an MOU, there is no applicable law clause or dispute resolution clause. Unfortunately, the ...