contract-law
Is there a name for the part of a contract that specifically deals with how the contract is to be interpreted?
<p>There often is a lot of meta-data in a contract. What I mean by meta-data is parts of the contract regarding how the contract itself is applied and interpreted. For example</p>

<ul>
<li>waiver clauses</li>
<li>no waiver clauses</li>
<li>severability / savings clauses</li>
<li>statements such as "time is of the essence" or "this is the entire contract and supersedes any previous"</li>
<li>this contract is executed and to be governed by the laws of the state of California.</li>
</ul>

<p>What do you call these things that are not the main intent of the contract? What do you call the main intent that would make up the body? For example if a property management company wanted to have a contract for lawn maintenance what would you call the active portion like:</p>

<p>"Company XYZ agrees to water and cut the grass every Thursday afternoon for Company ABC. Company ABC will compensate XYZ, $600 per lawn. XYZ must not use any poisonous chemicals on the lawn". </p>

<p>How would the entire contract be structured? I've seen labels used for exampling having a specific "severability" heading, but I've never seen a "main body" heading. </p>

<p>There is <strong>never</strong> meta-data in a contract. </p>

<p>Everything in a contract is either a term or a warranty. The difference is that breach of a term is grounds for termination and breach of a warranty isn't. Some conditions are explicitly terms (because they say that breaching them is grounds for termination) and some are implicitly terms in that they are so central to the substance of the contract that breach of them renders the contract incapable of being fulfilled.</p>

<p>Every item in a contract is assigning rights and obligations to one party or the other (or both) and they are all important. For example, waiver/no waiver clauses specifically override rights/obligations that the parties would otherwise have at law, "time is of the essence" <em>explicitly</em> makes time a term of the contract - if you are a minute late in delivering my apartment I can cancel the contract etc.</p>

<p>What you are describing is the <em>consideration</em>. The thing(s) of value that each party is providing to the other as one of the fundamental requirements of there being a contract.</p>
