In April, I received a phone call from Geneva, “whether I was willing to develop a training programme on contract drafting.” I tell you the story, which I circulated in our Newsletter of this morning, in this blog post.
About a year ago, Weagree’s work had attracted the attention of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of two major ngo’s. They were planning to establish the contract drafting training programme for the world’s 48 least developed countries (LDC’s). Though we were somewhat short of time, we undertook this dream job, being aware it was a unique opportunity.
1. Forthcoming book: Cross-border contracting – Practical guidance and training materials
Our work for the ITC will result in a new book “Cross-border contracting – Practical guidance and training materials“. It will constitute the basis for training sessions that the ITC will provide to the 48 LDC’s during the coming years. For this purpose, I travelled to Cambodia and Laos, where our training sessions were received with great enthusiasm. It struck me that these countries are clearly developing into full members of the world community. As you can imagine, this work and the feedback are highly rewarding!
The new book builds on eight key model contracts developed by ITC with the involvement of over 50 law firms worldwide. The contracts cover international sale of goods, long-term supply, manufacturing, commercial agency, distribution, provision of services, alliances and joint ventures. If you are interested, click here for a free PDF.
The forthcoming book complements the model contracts with explanatory notes, do’s and don’ts regarding cross-border contracting, contract drafting best practices, negotiation tips and training materials. A considerable part deals with the Vienna Convention (CISG), as well as intellectual property law. Also, various well-known materials of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will be worked out: documentary credit, Incoterms 2010, arbitration proceedings.
2. The Weagree Wizard upgraded
Early May, we upgraded Weagree’s contract assembly wizard. Along with various technical improvements, several functionalities were added:
- Multi-language support (i.e. date format, country lists, and headers, footers and cover page can be generated in the correct language)
- Generating PDF’s
- Simplifications for users
- Improved workflow
- Improved contract formatting capabilities (house style)
This upgrade is in line with the key feature of Weagree: focus on user-friendliness.
3. A new free Weagree eBook
I’m happy to tell you that Weagree has published a new eBook, volume 8. Again, the eBook is free. This time, it focuses on whether to insert and how to draft the miscellaneous provisions at the end of your contracts:
- Miscellaneous (boilerplate) clauses (part 1)
We hope you like the eBook. Download it here.
