ABSTRACT
Businesses generally wish to contract using their own standard conditions of contract, because they may have drafted their contracts to meet their own product, service, project, technical, commercial and legal requirements.1 It is called a ‘standard contract’. Standard terms are contract terms that one party formulates for use in his contracts generally and provides to other parties for use in their mutual transactions. Typically they are not negotiated but are presented to customers at the conclusion of bargaining over the contract’s principal subject matter. Standard terms or general terms are often referred to pejoratively as ‘boilerplate’.2 The boilerplate terms3 appear on the reverse side of the contract and are usually ignored until a dispute arises. Parties usually reach contracts for international sales of goods utilising standard terms. In standard contracts the party supplying a product or service spells out the terms on which the party does business and which it expects the other party to accept. Sometimes, standard terms designed for use in one country are subject to laws for which they are not designed.4
