Template:Counterparts capsule

Away from the gripping world of land law, a “counterparts” clause is as useful as a chocolate tea-pot. Indeed: even there, it is a waste of trees, because if the law decrees everyone has to sign the same physical bit of paper, a clause on that bit of paper that purports to state that they don’t won’t work. There is a chicken-and-egg problem here. A temporal paradox. But do not let that stop your legal eagles insisting on one, on pain of cratering the trade — realistically, you couldn’t if you tried — a fellow has to put food on the table for his younglings after all.

Black’s Law Dictionary has the following to say on counterparts:

“Where an instrument of conveyance, as a lease, is executed in parts, that is, by having several copies or duplicates made and interchangeably executed, that which is executed by the grantor is usually called the “original,” and the rest are “counterparts;” although, where all the parties execute every part, this renders them all originals.”

Sometimes it is important that more than one copy of a document is recognised as an “original” — for tax purposes, for example, or where “the agreement” must be formally lodged with a land registry. But these cases, involving the conveyance of real estate, are rare — non-existent, indeed, when the field you are ploughing overflows with flowering ISDA Master Agreements, confidentiality agreements and so on.