contract

1. a formal agreement between two or more parties

2. a document that states the terms of such an agreement

3. the branch of law treating of contracts

4. marriage considered as a formal agreement

6. Bridge

a. (in the bidding sequence before play) the highest bid, which determines trumps and the number of tricks one side must try to make

b. the number and suit of these tricks

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

contract

see SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

contract

A legally enforceable promise or agreement between two or among several persons. Also see agreement.

contract manufacturer

An organization that makes products under contract for other companies. It caters to the OEM market. In the computer and electronics fields, thousands of products are manufactured by contract manufacturers. These products are ordered by and branded with the OEM's name, which sells them to its customers.

Contract Manufacturers Can Be Huge
Some of the most popular products in the business are made by contract manufacturers. For example, Microsoft's Xbox game machine is made by Flextronics Corporation (www.flextronics.com), a huge company with factories around the world and nearly $15 billion in sales in 2004. Flextronics also makes cellphones for Ericsson, routers for Cisco and printers for HP. Other major contract manufacturers are Flextronics International (www.flextronics.com), Sanmina-SCI Corporation (www.sanmina-sci.com) and Celestica (www.celestica.com).

The ODM
An "original design manufacturer" (ODM) is similar to a contract manufacturer, but typically owns the intellectual property (IP) for the product itself, while the regular contract manufacturer uses its customer's designs and IP. Contract manufacturers can make hundreds or even thousands of different products, but ODMs often specialize in only a handful of categories.

EMS and CEMS
Contract manufacturers in the electronics field that not only make products, but offer assistance with the design and supply chain generally prefer to call themselves "electronics manufacturing services" (EMS) or "contract electronics manufacturing services" (CEMS). See OEM.

smart contract

An agreement recorded on a decentralized blockchain that automatically enforces a predefined arrangement, typically financial in nature, without an intermediary. On the Ethereum network, which is a general-purpose blockchain designed for this purpose, a smart contract can be used to exchange anything of value as well as self-execute when conditions are met such as a monetary amount has been accumulated or a date on the calendar has arrived.

Just like a bot or application running in a computer follows instructions, a smart contract executes its own programming code to perform an action. Smart contracts are traceable. verifiable and irreversible, which are the primary attributes of a blockchain architecture. See blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin smart contract, blockchain oracle and bot.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Contract

in civil law, an agreement between two or more persons (citizens or legal persons) to establish, change, or curtail civil rights and obligations. The word “contract” also often refers to the compulsory legal relationship arising from the contract and to the document in which the relationship is expressed. Depending on the number of parties to a contract, it is classified as bilateral or multilateral. If a contract grants nothing but rights for one party and nothing but obligations for the other it is unilateral, but if the contract results in rights and obligations for both parties it is called bilateral. A loan contract is an example of a unilateral contract. Examples of bilateral contracts are contracts for sale and purchase, delivery contracts, independent-work contracts, and shipping contracts.

In Soviet civil law the contract is one of the most important foundations on which compulsory legal relationships arise. It is a means of establishing and organizing economic relationships among socialist enterprises—state, cooperative (including kolkhozes), and public —and other organizations that participate in Soviet economic transactions. The contract is also the basic legal form for the disposal of the personal property of citizens of the USSR.

According to the principle of specific performance that has been adopted in Soviet civil law, the contract should be performed in physical fact (for example, the product should be transferred or the work performed). The contract usually includes conditions that are incentives to specific performance of the parties’ obligations as established in the contract (for example, property liability [sanctions] for nonperformance, compensation for losses, and payment of a penalty).

The conditions established by the parties in the contract are called its content. The conditions that are recognized as essential in law or necessary to a contract of a given type (for example, the object and price in a contract for sale and purchase) are considered to be substantial; that is, they are the conditions without which it is impossible to conclude the contract. Also considered substantial are those conditions on which, according to the statement of one of the parties, agreement must be reached (for example, the condition on delivering the commodity in a certain container or packing). A contract is considered concluded when agreement is reached between the parties on all substantial points in the form appropriate for the given instance.

Contracts are classified according to form as simple contracts and contracts verified by notaries. Some contracts must be registered at appropriate state agencies. For example, contracts for sale of a residential building must be verified by a notary and registered at the executive committee of the local soviet of working people’s deputies if even one of the parties to the contract is a citizen. Consent to conclude a contract by the party who initiated the process is called the proposal (offer), and consent by the party who responds to the offer is called acceptance. If only the parties’ reaching agreement on all substantial points is required for a contract obligation to arise, the contract is called consensual (from the Latin consensus, agreement). An example of a consensual contract is a contract for sale and purchase. If, in addition to agreement, an actual transfer of goods is required for a contract obligation to arise, the contract is called real. For example, a shipping contract is considered concluded when the freight is turned over to the shipper.

A specific type of contract is the contract in favor of a third person. This contract gives the right to demand performance either from the person who concluded the contract and the third party in whose favor the contract was concluded or from only the third party, who did not participate in the conclusion of the contract either directly or through a representative. For example, in the USSR the right to demand payment of the amount of insurance on a life insurance contract in case of the death of the insured resides only with the third party in whose favor the contract was concluded. The question of the possibility of changing contract conditions in favor of a third party without the consent of that party is resolved in different ways, depending on the type of contract. For example, when a deposit is made in a savings bank in the name of a third party, that party is considered to be the depositor, and the person who made the deposit does not have the right to change the conditions of the contract or to receive the deposit. With life insurance, the insured has the right at any time to change the party in whose favor the contract has been concluded.

If the third party has refused the right given to him by the contract, the person who concluded the contract may take advantage of this right if it does not conflict with the law, the sense of the contract, or the substance of the obligation.

In Soviet civil law the manner in which contracts are concluded is determined by the Basic Principles of Civil Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics of 1961 and the civil codes of the union republics (for example the Civil Code of the RSFSR, arts. 160-65). The manner in which contracts are concluded between socialist organizations is also regulated by special rules. In instances established by law, contracts between these organizations may be concluded by accepting an order for performance. Disagreements that arise between state, cooperative (excluding kolkhoz), and public organizations during the conclusion of a contract based on a plan assignment that is compulsory for both parties are resolved by arbitrators (arbitration tribunal) if the law does not provide otherwise. Disagreements that arise during the conclusion of a contract not based on a plan assignment that is compulsory for both parties are resolved in the same way, if this is specially provided for by the law or by agreement of the parties.

S. N. BRATUS’

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References in periodicals archive

BOSTON (7) _ Re-signed Koji Uehara, rhp, to an $18 million, two-year contract; signed Pablo Sandoval, 3b, San Francisco, to a $95 million, five-year contract; signed Hanley Ramirez, lf, Los Angeles Dodgers, to an $88 million, four-year contract; signed Justin Masterson, rhp, St.

BC-BBO--FreeAgentSigning

When courts evaluate whether additional insured coverage should be limited to vicarious liability, the contract language establishing the insurance requirement becomes the linchpin of the analysis.

Unravelling myths surrounding additional insured coverage

John McCain of Arizona, the vice chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently proposed limiting the Pentagon to fixed-price contracts for weapon programs.

Making the contract type fit the program

1.1011-2, which governs the tax treatment of an exchange of property that constitutes a bargain sale to a charitable organization (including an exchange of property for a charitable gift annuity).They would not prevent the exchange of property for an annuity contract for valid nontax reasons related to estate and succession planning for closely held businesses.

Service issues prop. regs. on exchanges for annuities

The legislation would prohibit such contracts, with limited exceptions.

New Congress may have contractors in its sights

This ruling concluded that: (1) F realized capital gain based on the difference between F's basis in the property and the annuity's PV; (2) this gain was reported ratably over F's life expectancy; (3) the investment in the contract to compute the exclusion ratio was F's basis in the property transferred; (4) the excess of the property's FMV over the annuity's PV was a gift from F to S; and (5) the prorated capital gain reported annually was derived from the taxable portion of each payment.

Private annuities: proposed regulations would negate income tax benefits

The first question before the Tax Court was the nature of the supply contracts. After reviewing New Mexico law, the court concluded they were contracts for the sale of goods and an interest in real property.

Like-kind exchanges of real property

Hulmes received the contract despite a recommendation by PVTA chief counsel Kevin Walkowski that some or the entire contract be awarded to Fairfield, California-based MV Transportation.

MV transportation loses contract bid: awarding practices spark federal investigation

If more than 50 percent of the members accept those provisions, NTSP will then proceed to negotiate the payer contract.

Anti-trust implications of independent practice associations

So the first step the regulators took is to ask companies to detail any contract that has certain components that can be associated with finite reinsurance.

Saved by the light: regulators and the industry hope that new disclosure requirements will eliminate shady finite reinsurance contracts and keep the product viable

In a well-established futures market, the contract and actual market prices tend to converge as the settlement date approaches.

Four ways to fight sky-high resin prices: there are lots of ways to economize on resin costs, but here are four that you may have overlooked: negotiating smarter resin contracts, buying "futures," using recycled resins, and more efficient purging aids. The main idea is to give yourself more choices, no matter what direction resin prices go

Contract management, contract administration, and contract oversight are often used interchangeably by acquisition personnel, but these terms are not synonymous.

Why training for service contract management is mission essential