“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.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

  • Balamurugan Rajendran

    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’?

  • Ken Adams

    Balamurugan: I don’t think so. Ken

  • Pingback: AdamsDrafting » Blog Archive » Defining “Government Body”