Ian Kelly wrote: >recently pointed out, the current reading of the first paragraph is >just a truism.
I don't read it as a truism. I prefer a reading that gives it significance. It seems to me that it is defining a class of Agoran entity: the binding agreement. We have often referred to these as "R1742 agreements". The paragraph is certainly unclear on this point, leaving important parts implicit. However, its general structure is used sufficiently often in clearly definitional rules that it makes more sense to interpret it as a definition than any other way. -zefram
