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Though often used interchangeably, counterpart and counterparty have very different meanings. In Legal English, a counterpart is a duplicate original or copy of a legal document. More broadly, counterpart can also mean a person or thing serving the same purpose as another in a different organisation or place. On the other hand, a counterparty is one of the parties to a contract or transaction.
counterpart
More information on the words discussed in the video, including sound files, examples of usage, common mistakes and encyclopaedic information, can be found in TransLegal's Legal English Dictionary.
Hi, I'm Peter and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week. Today we're going to talk about counterpart versus counterparty. These are two terms that my colleagues and I see confused by our clients regularly.
The first term, counterpart, means duplicate or copy and, as a lawyer or even as a law student, if you're familiar with contracts you'll see at the end of contracts language to the effect that this agreement has been signed in two original identical counterparts of which each party has received one. It's sort of standard closing language in a contract. All it means is each party has received a duplicate or copy of the original contract.
Counterparty, on the other hand, means one party to a contract transaction, trade, etc. Another way to talk about a counterparty, is to talk about the opposing side. For example, in a transaction there's a buyer and a seller and they would be on opposing sides or counterparties. A sample sentence here would be, “both of the counterparties are required to sign the contract in order for it to be valid.”
So as always, if you have any questions about the difference between counterpart and counterparty, please feel free to put a comment in the comments section below the video and myself or one of my colleagues will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks.
I suppose that the expression written on the board must be written in such way – Counterparty. Or it is some kind of abbreviation?
Yes. Good catch, Ivan. It should be “counterparty”.
thank you for the explanation, one question here: if I speak about the opponents in the trial are they also counterparties? and if I am a plaintiff is the defendent a counterparty for me? Thank you.
Generally speaking, an opponent may be referred to as a “counterparty”, an “adversary” or simply “the other side”, but in court they are usually referred to more specifically and based on their role in the proceedings. For example, “defense counsel”, “counsel for the defense”, “the defense”, “the defendant”, “the claimant”, “the respondent”, “the plaintiff”, “the appellee”, “the appellant”, etc.
Peter, good explanation. Just a small tip, try not to jiggle so much with the pen. If you can’t avoid it, better avoid holding a pen at all. Keep up the good work!