social contract. The express or implied agreement between citizens and their government by which individuals agree to surrender certain freedoms in exchange for mutual protection; an agreement forming the foundation of a political society. • The term is primarily associated with political philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and esp. Jean Jacques Rousseau, though […]
A contract requiring the contractor to build a product according to exact technical speci-fications provided by the customer. • The design specifications are explicit and are often coupled with perfor-mance specifications, so the contractor has little discretion in how to perform. Much governmental contracting is build-to-print. — Also termed design-specification contract. Cf. performance contract (1).
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contract-specification defense. An affirmative defense that immunizes a contractor from liability for a defect in a product when the contractor has manufactured or performed according to detailed contractual orders. • The defense applies to specialized, single-use components and protects a component supplier from claims of negligent design if the component conforms to the contractual specifications
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Walsh–Healey Act. A federal law, enacted in 1936, stipulating that government contractors must: (1) pay their workers no less than the prevailing minimum wage; (2) observe the eight-hour day and 40-hour workweek (with time-and-a-half for work exceeding those hours); (3) employ no convict labor and no females under 18 or males under 16 years of
Employment Standards Administration. A unit in the U.S. Department of Labor responsible for administering various laws and programs pertaining to minimum-wage and overtime standards, registration of farm-labor contractors, wage rates to be paid and the nondiscrimination and affirmative-action programs to be followed by government contractors and subcontractors, workers’-compensation programs for federal and certain private employers,
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renegotiation, n. 1. The act or process of negotiating again or on different terms; a second or further negotiation. 2. The reexamination and adjustment of a government contract to eliminate or recover excess profits by the contractor. [Cases: United States 70(35).] — renegotiate, vb.
authorization clause. Patents. A Patent Act provision directing that if a person uses or manufactures something protected by a valid U.S. patent, acts on behalf of the U.S. government, and acts with the government’s authori-zation or consent, the U.S., not the person, is deemed the infringing user or manufacturer. • If an infringing act is
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Small Business Administration. A federal agency that helps small businesses by assuring them a fair share of government contracts, guaranteeing their loans or lending them money directly, and providing disaster relief. • The agency was established by the Small Business Act of 1953. — Abbr. SBA. [Cases: United States 53(8). C.J.S. United States § 91.]
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diplomatic protection. Protection given by one country’s representatives to a person, usu. its citizen, against another country’s alleged violation of international law. “The term diplomatic protection is not altogether precise. First, not only diplomatic agents and missions and other foreign offices may and do exercise diplomatic protection, but also, at a different level, consuls, and,
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grandfather clause. 1. Hist. A clause in the constitutions of some Southern states exempting from suffrage re-strictions the descendants of men who voted before the Civil War. 2. A provision that creates an exemption from the law’s effect for something that existed before the law’s effective date; specif., a statutory or regulatory clause that exempts
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