United States Contract Handbook
Practical drafting reference for US contract law — common law fundamentals, UCC Article 2, B2B commercial agreements, employment, corporate / equity, B2C compliance, and HIPAA / DPA. Plus a structured JSON knowledge base for AI document-generation agents.
Drafting reference for contracts under United States law. Built around common-law contract fundamentals (Restatement (Second) of Contracts, Statute of Frauds, consideration, mutual assent), the UCC Article 2 sale-of-goods regime, and the country’s fragmented federal-plus-state compliance landscape. Every entry ships as both a prose page (for humans) and a JSON data file (for AI agents).
Foundation
Cross-handbook reference resources. Read these first when drafting any specific contract type.
- US contract law basics — common-law fundamentals, Statute of Frauds, consideration, mutual assent, parol evidence rule, promissory estoppel, R2K
- UCC Article 2 — sale of goods — gap-fillers, merchant rules, perfect tender, warranty merchantability, integration with Article 9
- Standard boilerplate clauses — governing law, jurisdiction & venue, mandatory arbitration (FAA), indemnification, limitation of liability, integration, severability, attorney’s fees, jury trial waiver
B2B Commercial
- NDA / Confidentiality Agreement
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Independent Contractor Agreement
- Software License Agreement / EULA
- Reseller / Distribution Agreement
- Letter of Intent / Term Sheet
- Bill of Sale
Corporate / Equity
Uniquely US business-formation and equity contracts. No direct German equivalents.
Employment
- Employment Agreement — at-will doctrine, Title VII, ADA, FLSA exempt vs non-exempt
- Offer Letter — distinct from full Employment Agreement
- Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation — California voids per B&P § 16600; state-by-state enforceability; FTC 2024 ban (litigated)
- Severance Agreement — OWBPA waiver requirements, ADEA, GINA
B2C / Consumer
US-mandatory documents for consumer-facing online businesses — fragmented across federal and state law.
- Privacy Policy — CCPA / CPRA + VCDPA + CPA + CTDPA + COPPA + GLBA + 12+ other state laws
- Terms of Service — Section 230 immunity, DMCA § 512 safe harbor, CAN-SPAM
- Cookie Consent — CCPA opt-out, CPRA “Do Not Sell or Share” link, universal opt-out signals
- Accessibility Statement — ADA Title III, Section 508, WCAG 2.1 AA conformance
- Refund / Return Policy — FTC Mail Order Rule, state subscription auto-renewal disclosure
Compliance
- HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) — 45 CFR § 164.504(e), required contract elements, breach-notification chain
- Data Processing Agreement (DPA) — vendor processor framework; cross-border GDPR overlap
Open dataset
The full US handbook is published as machine-readable JSON, validated against the shared schema.
- Aggregated bundle —
data/handbook/us.json— single fetch with every record - Per-record JSON files —
data/handbook/us/ - Schema —
data/handbook/schema.json
For AI agents, the API documentation describes the bundle URL pattern, schema fields, and example agent workflow.
License
Content licensed under CC-BY 4.0. Attribution: “Source: Chaindoc Labs — labs.chaindoc.io/handbook/us/”.
Disclaimer: Handbook content is informational, not legal advice. Last verified 2026-05-10. Always consult licensed counsel for binding decisions.
Maintained by the Chaindoc team.