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{{Urgent}}

A '''contract''' is a document between two or more parties that entitles both to a certain benefit at a defined cost. They are used for a multitude of purposes, such as the promissory note of a loan from a bank, the charter of a [[political party]], or a treaty to ally two [[Country|countries]].

All contracts share in common that they must be signed by the parties involved in order to take effect. Additionally, all contracts can be broken by one of the signatories not following the terms.  The contract system was implemented in [[History/17 December 2007|December 2007]].

== Should I sell/buy on the black market? == 
[[Black Market Trading]] is buying/selling directly to/from other organizations or citizens without involving the [[marketplace]].<br>Well, doing so involves many risks.

To avoid them, you need to have a valid, [http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Contracts/1 signed contract]. If the other party does not respect the contract, you can then require that admins enforce the contract, by starting a trial.

Having no [http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/85645/contract-guidelines-rules-for-making-valid-contract/1 valid contract] means that only you are responsible for using the black market.

==Types of contracts==
 
===Monetary Loans===
A loan is the distribution of [[Currency|money]] or [[gold]] over time from a lender to a borrower. In order to secure the loan, the lender must write a '''promissory contract'''. This contract is created by the party issuing the loan, such as a [[bank]] or a secretary of the treasury, to detail the terms of the loan to the recipient.

===Constitutions and Charters===
A constitution is written by the president of a country to declare the rights and goals of the country and it's citizens. A charter similar, as it is written by the president of a political party to detail the goals of his presidency. These are both '''congressional contracts''', meaning that they both require a majority of the signatures of the country's congress in order to become valid. The rules for creating a congressional contract can be found [[User talk:Admin#Constitutions (by Admin)|here]].

===Treaties===
A treaty is written by the secretary of an alliance or a country to declare allegiances with countries. Treaties can also be used to end [[war]]s. Most treaties are written as '''presidential contracts''', which are signed by the respective presidents of the countries involved in the alliance or war.

==A contract is not==
===A petition===
A petition is a type of protest in which someone outlines a problem and proposes a solution, and it is ratified after a certain amount of signatures. They are not contracts in the notion that they have signatories, nor do they have to be followed.

===An open discussion===
Although written in the [http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Contracts/1 Contracts forum], a contract thread is '''not''' a proposition to be discussed. These are documents, and the only replies in the thread should be signatures.


==Contract guidelines==
All contracts must follow the same guidelines and be posted on the forum.  The official guidelines are [http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/81177/contract-guidelines/1 here].


1. Each forum discussion in this [http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Contracts/1 category] represents a contract agreed by 2 or more eRepublik entities.

2. The contracts can be signed only by Citizens representing themselves or, if it is the case, representing the Party, Company, Country, Region or Newspaper that they lead.

3. A contract is not valid if its terms break the eRepublik Rules.

4. A contract is considered valid is the citizens that agreed its terms post the phrase: ''"I agree the Contract terms"'';

5. A contract must include at least this information:
*the entities that agreed the contract and, if the entity is not a citizen, the citizen that represents that entity;
*the time validity;
*the terms agreed;
*penalties agreed in case the contract is broken by one of the entities;
*what actions should be taken by the ADMIN in case the contract is broken by one of the entities.

6. A contract ends if:
*it reaches it's time limit;
*one of the entities breaks the contract without the consent of the other one(s);
*all entities that signed the contract will post in the same discussion the phrase: ''"I want to close this contract"'';

7. If one of the entities that signed the agreement considers that the other one broke the contract rules, the citizen that represent that entity can ask for a trial. The cost of a trial is 5 Gold and should be payed by the entity that asks the trial.

To ask for a trial a Citizen must post in the contract discussion the phrase: ''"I want to start a Trial against $entity. I agree that 5 Gold is removed from my account as Trial costs."'' - where ''"$entity"'' will be replaced with the name of the entity that is accused of contract breaching.

A Judge must analyze the request and announce a conclusion. If the conclusion says that the entity that started the trial was right, the Trial cost will be payed by the accused party to the pursuer.The Judge will be represented by the Admin.

''[[Admin|We]] will delete comments which are not signatures or contracts modifications or updates. We will delete expired contracts. We kindly ask that, for Contracts that involve companies, to provide the link to those companies in the text of the Contract or in a comment (for companies created or bought after the Contract signing).''

==See also==
*[http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Contracts/1 Contracts forum]

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