International Contract Form — Structure · Контракт.Онлайн

Fill in the form with the parties' details and deal terms — get a personal bilingual document with all the mandatory sections for your bank and partner.

✓ Written form under the Civil Code

✓ Bilingual EN/RU

✓ 173-FZ · CISG

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FAQ

Questions about the international contract form

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Under Article 162 of the Russian Civil Code, the written form is mandatory. Notarization and state registration are not required. Signatures of authorized representatives of both parties are sufficient. The CISG (Article 11) itself imposes no form requirements, but Russia made a reservation for the written form upon ratification.

Mandatory sections: names and details of the parties, the subject of the agreement with the HS code, price and currency, delivery terms under Incoterms, the payment procedure and schedule, the parties' rights and obligations, liability, force majeure, governing law, and the arbitration clause. For the bank under 173-FZ, performance deadlines and the advance-refund procedure are also required.

The law sets no language requirements. However, Russian banks and customs work with documents in Russian, while foreign partners work in English. The optimal form is a bilingual contract with parallel EN/RU columns: both texts carry equal legal weight, and no notarized translation is needed.

Yes. The exchange of electronic documents with signatures is recognized as the written form under Article 434 of the Russian Civil Code. For foreign partners, this is usually scans with original signatures or international services (DocuSign, Adobe Sign). Banks accept scans for registering the contract under 173-FZ.

The parties are free to choose the governing law. The standard for goods deals is the CISG Convention plus the national law of one of the parties as a subsidiary source. The CISG does not apply to services — the law of Russia or the partner's country is chosen instead. Dispute resolution venues: the ICAC at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Moscow), the ICC (Paris), or SIAC (Singapore).

No. An international contract requires no notarization, apostille, or state registration. Russian law (Article 162 of the Civil Code) and the CISG Convention only require the written form. The document is signed by authorized representatives of both parties.

International Contract Form: Legal Requirements and Practice

In international trade, the form of a contract is not mere paperwork — it is a legally significant element of the deal. A properly structured document determines whether it will pass currency control at the bank, whether customs will accept it, and whether it can protect the Russian party's interests if a dispute arises.

Written Form under the Civil Code and CISG

Article 162 of the Russian Civil Code establishes the mandatory written form for transactions involving foreign counterparties. Article 11 of the CISG allows a contract to be concluded in any form, but Russia made a reservation for the written form upon ratification. In practice, this means the contract must be signed by authorized representatives of both parties. No notarization, apostille, or state registration is required.

Bilingual Form and International Trade Practice

The most common form of an international contract is a bilingual document with parallel columns: English on the left, Russian on the right. This lets the Russian party use the Russian-language version for the bank and customs, while the foreign partner works with the English version. Both texts carry equal legal force; in case of discrepancies, priority is determined by a clause in the contract itself.

Form Requirements under 173-FZ for Currency Control

When registering a contract for currency control (from 3 million RUB for import, from 6 million RUB for export), the authorized bank checks for the mandatory details required by Bank of Russia Instruction No. 181-I: the subject of the deal, the amount, performance deadlines, the payment procedure, and both parties' details. The Контракт.Онлайн generator produces a contract form with these sections structured correctly, ruling out a bank refusal at registration.

Contract Form and the Arbitration Clause

Choosing the governing law and the dispute-resolution venue is a critically important section of the international contract form. For goods deals, the standard is the CISG Convention plus national law as a subsidiary source. The arbitration clause determines whether a dispute will be heard by the ICAC at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Moscow), the ICC (Paris), the LCIA (London), or SIAC (Singapore). Our generator offers ready-made arbitration clause wording for the main jurisdictions.