July 18, 2009 “Contractual”
I can’t recall ever having used the adjective contractual, meaning “of, pertaining to, or secured by a contract.” I find it an awkward mouthful.
As a general matter, I’d rather simply use contract, as in contract terms and contract obligations rather than contractual terms and contractual obligations.
And rather than referring to contractual instruments or contractual arrangements, why not just say contracts?
Nevertheless, contractual occurs frequently in contracts. (Sometimes it’s misspelled contractural, with an extra r.) For example, it occurred in 1,182 contracts filed as exhibit 10 “material contracts” on the SEC’s EDGAR system in the past month. I particularly enjoyed its use in the following bit of nonsense:
Terms of this agreement are contractual and not a mere recital.
July 19, 2009 at 3:55 am
Interesting to note the usage of ‘contractual’.
Is it meaningful to use the adjective ‘contractual’ when referring to ‘contractual risks’ and ‘contractual rate of progress’ as compared to ‘contract risks’ and ‘contract rate of progress’?
July 19, 2009 at 8:53 am
Balamurugan: I don’t think so. Ken
August 20, 2009 at 1:32 pm
[...] for the same reason that I prefer using contract rather than contractual as an adjective. (See here.) And I opted for body rather than authority because it seemed simpler and clearer. Authority can [...]