Skip to main content
Language Foundation

counterpart

In contract law, a counterpart is one of two or more separate but identical copies of the same contract or other legal document, each signed by a different party and together constituting a single agreement.

In plain English

The same agreement can exist in several matching copies so different parties sign separate copies. Each such copy is a counterpart, and all of them are treated together as one agreement.

In context

Here, counterpart identifies one separately signed identical copy of the agreement that, together with the other signed copies, makes up the single agreement.

Situation
Reading agreement sections, parties, dates, signatures, and execution status
What it communicates
identifies a separately signed copy referenced in the agreement's signature clause.

Meaning limits

The term by itself does not show how many copies exist or whether all required signatures are present.

Examples

“Instead of signing the same sheet, the tenant signed one counterpart of the lease and the landlord signed the other identical copy.”

Core meaning

“Please return your signed counterpart of the agreement by post.”

In context

  • duplicate Broader Term

    In this sense, a counterpart is a kind of duplicate of the same legal document.

  • corresponding person or thing Alternate Sense

    This is a different sense of the word, not the contract-law sense of a separately signed copy.