Signing, terms and clauses / Governing law clause
A governing law and jurisdiction clause that stays findable
The short clause naming the law that applies and the courts that will hear a dispute, usually near the end of an agreement.
Why this block is harder than it looks
It is two sentences in a document of two hundred, and it is one of the three clauses anybody ever looks for, along with termination and liability. So the layout problem is entirely about findability in a long document: a clause with the same heading treatment as forty others is not findable by flipping, and the reader who needs it is flipping. It also must not be split across a page break, because a governing law clause with the jurisdiction sentence on the next page is exactly the ambiguity it exists to remove.
The decisions that make it work
Reasons rather than a description of the code. Each of these is a choice that has a wrong answer, and the wrong answer is usually the default.
- Give it a heading in the same style as every other clause. Special treatment for one clause makes an agreement look edited rather than drafted, and the findability comes from the contents page instead.
- Make sure it appears in the contents with its clause number, since that is how anybody actually finds it.
- Keep the law sentence and the jurisdiction sentence in one break-inside: avoid block. They are one provision in two sentences.
- Name the jurisdiction in full rather than by abbreviation, and state whether it is exclusive or non-exclusive, because the two are different provisions.
- Do not set it in bold or capitals for emphasis. Capitalised legal text is measurably harder to read, and the convention that it signals importance does not survive a whole clause.
- Keep the clause number with the text using break-after: avoid on the heading, so the number is never orphaned at a page foot.
The fragment
Markup and the CSS it needs, and nothing else. It expects a document that already has a page rule and a base stylesheet, so paste it into one rather than opening it on its own.
<section class="clause" id="governing-law">
<h3>Governing law and jurisdiction</h3>
<p>This agreement and any dispute arising out of it are governed by the laws
of England and Wales.</p>
<p>The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any
dispute arising out of this agreement.</p>
</section>
<style>
.clause {
break-inside: avoid; /* one provision, two sentences */
margin-bottom: 8pt;
}
.clause h3 {
break-after: avoid; /* number never orphaned */
margin: 0 0 3pt;
font-size: 9.5pt;
font-weight: 700;
}
.clause p {
margin: 0 0 3pt;
font-size: 9pt;
line-height: 1.45;
text-align: left; /* not justified, not capitalised */
}
</style>What breaks when it is built the obvious way
Setting it in capitals to make it stand out. Capitalised running text is read more slowly and less accurately than sentence case, so the clause you emphasised is the clause people skim. Emphasis in a legal document belongs in the structure, not in the letterforms.
How to prove it survived pagination
Render the full agreement and try to find this clause in under ten seconds using only the contents page. If you cannot, the contents entry is missing or the clause is unnumbered. Then push it near a page break and confirm both sentences move together.
Where it sits in a finished document
This page is one block. The document it belongs to has a page rule, a base stylesheet, a header and everything else around it, and repeating all of that here would make thirty pages that say the same thing. The services agreement template is a complete file with this block already in it, so take that and change the fragment rather than assembling one from parts. The property doing most of the work here is covered on its own page, with the support caveats that belong there rather than here.
Frequently asked
Will this fragment work on its own?
Not as a whole document. It has no page rule, no margins and no base type, because those belong to the document rather than to the block, and duplicating them in every fragment would mean thirty copies to keep in step. Paste it into a template that already has them.
Why does it look right in a browser and wrong in the PDF?
Because a browser window is one continuous surface and a document is a stack of fixed rectangles. Nothing in a scrolling view exercises a page boundary, so every break rule in the fragment is inert until the content is paginated. Render the real thing with enough content to cross two or three boundaries, then look.
Do I need a special option on the render request for this?
No. Everything on this page is CSS and markup, which is your side of the boundary. What the render has to give you is a real page size with real margins, and after that the layout is decided by the stylesheet.
Other parts of a document
The blocks that sit next to this one, and one from the next group along so you are not sealed inside a single kind of problem.
A confidentiality marking on every page that cannot be missed
A classification such as confidential or commercial in confidence, printed on every page so a single sheet carries its own handling instruction.
A consent statement with a tick box that records a real choice
A statement the reader agrees to, with a box or a signature recording that they did, on a form completed by hand or pre-filled.
An exclusions list that is as visible as the inclusions
What a quote, warranty or scope does not cover, printed alongside what it does, so the boundary is stated rather than implied.
An attachments list that says what is attached and where it is
A list of documents that accompany this one, with enough identification that a reader can tell whether they have received everything.
Services agreement, as a complete file
The whole document with this block already in place, ready to copy and change.
break-after in paged output
The property carrying the weight here, with its real support status.
Every part of a document
The full list, grouped by the kind of problem the block poses.
Paste the fragment into the playground inside a page rule and see what it does at a real page size. That is the only way any of this gets confirmed.