Key definitions used throughout the operational part of the contract are better used in the definition section of the treaty than in the recitals, since the recitals may have no legal value. This is not necessarily the approach taken in practice, as is the case with the 2012 International Petroleum Negotiater Association (AIPN) model for the Joint Enterprise Agreement (AIPN JOA). In the AIPN JOA, the term “contract” is defined in the recitals by reference to the contract for the sharing of the underlying production, the concession of the state, the license, the leasing base or any other instrument related to this particular JOA. The “contract” is defined in the “Definitions” section as “the instrument defined in the recitals of this agreement, including any extension, extension and/or amendment.” These provisions are likely intended to translate all the facts mentioned in the recitals into statements, so that a party could remedy this situation if one of these facts turns out to be inaccurate. Therefore, I recommend you not to explain that all considerations are true and fair or even correct (a less dopey alternative to true and fair). In order to ensure the inclusion of key definitions in the legally binding contract, a better approach might be to include the text “as defined below” just before the term defined in the recitals and, therefore, to implicitly draw the reader`s attention to the section of the definition contained in the treaty arrangement. However, in practice, it is unlikely that a court will not take into account all references to terms defined in the recitals when interpreting the agreement. This article seeks to reaffirm the importance of the modest recital and to recall that, in certain circumstances, the recitals could be legally binding on the parties and that they could also play an important role in the ability of a third party (including a court or arbitrator) to review relevant background information in order to determine the true intent of the parties. Is it possible to completely exclude the effectiveness of the recitals? The four essential elements of a binding contract under English law are offer, acceptance, reflection and the intention to create legal relationships.