Glossary

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is which courts will hear a dispute if the parties cannot agree.

Last updated 26 October 2026

Jurisdiction names the courts that deal with a fight about the contract. It is usually written next to the governing-law clause, near the end of the paper. The two lines look like boilerplate. They are the ones that decide whose playbook you are in if an invoice is ignored.

Governing law and jurisdiction are different. Governing law is which legal system reads the words. Jurisdiction is which courts hear the case. They often point to the same place, but they can differ. A contract can say “England and Wales law, courts of New York”. That combination is possible, and it is also how people accidentally create an expensive argument.

When the parties are in different countries, each often prefers its home courts. The clause is there so that question is answered before anyone is in a dispute. Exclusive jurisdiction means only the named courts hear it. Non-exclusive means those courts can hear it, and others might too.

For a freelancer in the UK working for a US company, the client’s template will often name US courts. That is a commercial choice, not a requirement. What you should not do is leave the clause blank. A blank clause is how a £2,000 invoice grows a conflict-of-laws memo before anyone talks about the work.

The /law pages collect the sourced notes for each place we publish. This glossary page does not list those rules. It only names the difference between the two lines and why they belong in the paper. If you are not sure which place to pick, pick one place for both lines and say so in the statement of work, rather than leaving two blanks.

A worked example

A UK studio and a New York client agree that English courts hear any dispute, under the law of England and Wales. The client’s first draft named New York courts and Delaware law. The studio asked for one place for both lines. They kept England and Wales for the governing law and the courts, and did not split them.

How it shows up in a contract

Sample wording · our own drafting

This agreement and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it, including non-contractual disputes or claims, is governed by the law of [England and Wales]. The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of [England and Wales] have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim.

In Plain English

The law of England and Wales decides what this contract means, including rows that are not strictly about the contract. If it goes to court, only those courts hear it, and both sides accept that.

Common mistakes

  • Leaving jurisdiction blank on a cross-border deal.
  • Picking one country’s law and another country’s exclusive courts without meaning to.
  • Confusing “where we live” with “which courts we chose”. They only match if the clause says so.
  • Letting a statement of work silently name different courts from the master agreement.

Related

The legal wording governsLast reviewed 26 October 2026Pending lawyer review