The Memorandum of Understanding and the Jural Relation (Vinculum juris)

Maurício Alves de Lima

Memorandum of understanding, preliminary negotiations, preliminary agreement, offer and its acceptance, jural relation (vinculum juris).

This paper reviews the legal framework of the document named memorandum of understanding, or letter of intent, usually employed in corporate negotiations. The interpretation of said document uses to bring about countless conflicts that are almost invariably referred to the Judiciary Branch for settlement. By virtue of the aforementioned, this paper intends to point out the steps to be observed when preparing a memorandum of understanding, or letter of intent. These steps are aimed at providing legal certainty to the parties thereto thus preventing controversies about its legal effects, and litigations between the parties that might potentially entail costs to the state.

Received: 03 Dec 2020; Received in revised form: 20 Feb 2021; Accepted: 09 Mar 2021; Available online: 28 Mar 2021

10.22161/ijaers.83.41