Framework contract: mechanism and legal nature of incorporating general terms into individual contracts

The article analyses a common type of framework contracts, in which general parameters of future transactions are agreed upon, while their essential terms are left open for further negotiations. The main question is whether such framework contracts have their own legal effect and, if so, what kind of legal effect they have. The author argues that although positive theories often turn out to be unsound, the idea that the agreement in question is completely devoid of legal force cannot be accepted either, as it does not explain its effect enshrined in Clause 2 of Article 429.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation i. e. the formation of a common set of dispositive terms included in local contracts by default. The reason for the described difficulty, as it is argued in the article, is that the standard conceptual apparatus of civil law is not able to adequately describe the essence of the studied agreement. An appeal to the theory of fact-states and a preliminary explanation of the mechanics of the framework contract's action allow to give the phenomenon a proper explanation.