Support for Non-US Governing Law and Chosen Courts

Common Paper standard agreements were created with the laws of the United States in mind by a committee of US-based attorneys, so we don't include other countries as default options in our UI. However, you may now optionally enable support for most other countries. Read below for instructions.

While Common Paper standard agreements were created in consultation with a committee of US-based attorneys, the use of these agreements in foreign jurisdictions and cross-border transactions should be reviewed alongside local laws and customs. As always, please be sure your attorney has reviewed these agreements. Common Paper is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. See our Disclaimer page for details about using these forms.

In order to have the option to choose non-US countries for these fields, you'll need to make a change in your organization settings.

NOTE: These screenshots and instructions are for the templates and 1:1 contracts created and signed within the Common Paper platform. For the Terms of Service that is generated and then posted on your website, see the section below.

Click on the Settings link on the left navigation.

Scroll down until you see the section for Governing Law & Court Options. Toggle the slider on, and then be sure to click Save at the bottom.

Once you've saved these settings, you can add non-US governing law and chosen court options to any templates or new agreements.

Once the toggle is enabled, these two sections will appear differently. You'll be asked to choose a Country first, with the United States as the default. Once you've chosen a non-US country, you'll be given the option to type in an optional Administrative Region.

NOTE: When choosing Canada, you'll be able to choose from a dropdown of Canadian provinces, with the exception of Quebec.

From here, everything else follows the normal patterns of creating and sending agreements.

Due to complexities in sanction restrictions and local laws, some countries are not available as an option for Governing Law and Chosen Courts. If you would like to use a country that is not included in the list, consult with your attorney.

Here are the countries and provinces excluded from our list:

The ToS generator creates a file with text that you can post on your site. While the same legal considerations apply to ToS, the way to use non-US governing law is somewhat different.

When answering the questions in the ToS generator, put a placeholder location for Governing Law and Chosen Courts. Then, once the text file has been generated, you can edit these fields to match your desired location.