Objet
English translation: purpose
| 11:15 Sep 17, 2018 |
| French to English translations [Non-PRO] Law/Patents - Law: Contract(s) / Non-disclosure agreement | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Tony M France Local time: 13:02 | ||||||
Grading comment
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| Summary of answers provided | ||||
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| 4 +4 | purpose |
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| 4 -4 | Whereas |
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Answers
2 hrs confidence: 
peer agreement (net): -4
peer agreement (net): -4Whereas Explanation: Normally in French contract law, "object" means the purpose of the contract and it may be stated in the contract to make clear that the contract is being made for a lawful purpose. However, in this example, the fact that confidential info has been or may be divulged is not the purpose of the contract. It's the factual scenario that explains why the parties are entering into the contract, but it's not the purpose (the purpose of an NDA, of course, is to keep each party's confidential info secure). In English-language contracts you see "whereas" clauses at or near the beginning of the contract to set forth the factual scenario that explains why this contract is being entered into. Sometimes contracts contain multiple such clauses ("Whereas, yada yada; whereas, yada yada yada; whereas, yada, the parties, intending to be legally bound, hereby blah blah blah"). The whereas clauses may also be referred to as the "recitals." Anyway, since the French original you've posted states the factual scenario that explains why the parties have decided to enter into the NDA, I would translate "object" as "whereas." -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2 hrs (2018-09-17 13:51:19 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Agh! I don't know if it's spellcheck or just me being on autopilot, but both times that it says "object" in my post, it should of course say "objet." -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2018-09-17 20:08:44 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Here's a French-language explanation of what "objet" means in French contract law: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objet_en_droit_civil_français Sometimes the correct translation of this is "consideration" (see definition #2 here: https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=305). Sometimes it's "subject matter" (i.e. the thing that the contract is about). Sometimes it may be something else. But the two concepts (objet and consideration, or objet and subjet matter) aren't exactly equivalent, which is why those aren't always the best translations. And in any case, we don't normally put "consideration" or "subject matter" as a header in US or UK contracts. Instead, we identify the subject matter of the contracts in one of the "whereas" clauses (a.k.a. recitals). -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 9 hrs (2018-09-17 20:21:18 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- NOTE TO ANNE: Re your comment about the second extract - I agree with your initial sense that you should translate these instances of "objet" with two different words. I say that with hesitation because if that first "Objet" is the only instance where objet is capitalized, then this contract is actually a bit badly drafted, since capitalized terms are supposed to refer back to a contractually stated definition of the term, but in this case it doesn't make sense. That is, if that second "Objet" is referring to the first one, it doesn't make sense because it literally says this: "Objective/Purpose/Whatever: During the parties' exchanges, confidential information has been or may be exchanged; Obligations - The Receiving Party agrees: (1) to make no use of the Confidential Information other than that strictly necessary to the achievement of the Objective/Purpose/Whatever." In other words it says, the receiving party agrees not to use the confidential info except as strictly necessary to the achievement of exchanging confidential info! And that, of course, makes no sense at all. As a practicing lawyer in this area of law, I've drafted I don't even know how many NDAs. If you translate that first "Objet" as "purpose" (or goal, objective, etc.), then what belongs there is the actual PURPOSE (goal, etc.) of exchanging confidential info. For instance, is this a contract between two companies contemplating a merger, or negotiating an intellectual property license, and needing to share confidential info in order to decide whether to go through with the deal? Then THAT is the purpose of the contract: to enable the parties to exchange confidential information as needed for their negotiations to proceed. So either you translate both as "purpose" or "objective," and the contract is badly drafted in the original French, therefore your translation is too; or you just make that first "Objet" a "whereas" phrase. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 9 hrs (2018-09-17 20:22:06 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- PS I hesitate to translate it with two different words because I usually stick with the principle that if the original is badly written, the translation should be too. But that's your call. |
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