The taxonomy

Defect families that show up here

Each family groups scenarios of the same kind — what the dispute will look like and what kind of fix will close it.

Vague operative term

A word that switches a right on or off but carries no definition and no measurement baseline. In this contract the vague term is the subject matter itself.

Diagnostic: This term decides whether money changes hands — could two honest readers draw the line in different places?

Definitional boundary

A term whose definitional anchor has fuzzy edges, so real facts fall neither clearly inside nor clearly outside it. Includes incorporation by reference to an instrument the document never identifies.

Diagnostic: Can I describe a realistic thing that is arguably in and arguably out?

Cross-clause tension

Two provisions are individually valid, but together one erodes what the other promised. Here the price term quietly specifies the product.

Diagnostic: Does one clause let a party nullify what another clause appears to guarantee?

Gap / silence

A situation the text does not address: a missing procedure, a missing fallback, a required step with no stated consequence for its absence.

Diagnostic: For every duty, is the consequence of breach stated? For every required step, what governs if it is skipped?

Standardless discretion

One actor — or, here, a non-party — holds unilateral power over a consequential determination, with no stated standard and no review.

Diagnostic: Who decides, on what standard, and what stops a self-serving decision?

Internal contradiction

Two provisions that cannot both be honored as written. Across instruments, two same-day documents whose terms conflict with no priority rule.

Diagnostic: If I enforce both literally, do I get an impossible or opposite result?