By Zinta Strydom – Commercial Director
In today’s globalised business environment, companies often operate across multiple jurisdictions, each with its own set of laws, regulations, and cultural norms. International commercial law is a complex and ever-changing legal landscape. It covers a broad range of topics, from contract law to business transactions, and from intellectual property rights to data privacy.
In the ever-evolving landscape of commerce, businesses face a myriad of legal challenges that can significantly impact their operations and bottom line. From contract disputes to regulatory compliance, understanding and effectively navigating commercial law while operating in various jurisdictions is essential for mitigating risks and ensuring sustained success. In this article, I explore ways of mitigating your multi-jurisdictional contracting and compliance risks.
A common way of apportioning risk in a contract is for the parties to limit or exclude their liability to one another. This can take various forms as some clauses may exclude liability entirely, others may cap it or restrict the type of losses that are recoverable or the remedies that are available. What you want to achieve is a position where you assess your company risks to establish your liability limit which you want to standardise across all your contracts. This requires a further exercise to establish a list of relevant laws that impact on the services your company provides in various jurisdictions, which often leaves companies overwhelmed.
While there are some common terms and/or similarities, each regional company normally maintains its own version of contract templates. The ultimate ideal is to harmonise contracting structures and templates both globally and across all product / service lines to promote uniformity representing your company as a cohesive, global leader in the marketplace.
To address these challenges proactively, companies have to turn to legal playbooks as a strategic tool for standardising their approach to risk management. A legal playbook is a comprehensive document that outlines standard positions, strategies, and protocols for addressing common legal issues and risks encountered by a company. It serves as a reference guide for key stakeholders, providing them with clear and consistent guidance on how to respond to various legal scenarios. While legal playbooks are typically tailored to the specific needs and objectives of a company, they can also be adapted to address regional challenges and considerations.
One of the key advantages of utilising a legal playbook is its ability to incorporate regional nuances and factors into the risk mitigation strategy. By customising the playbook to account for these regional differences, organisations can better anticipate and address potential legal challenges. This principle can also be used if you operate in one jurisdiction. Do you have your legal playbook ready?
