Entirety

Entirety or entire agreement under common law means that a written agreement is regarded as complete in principle. Therefore, it gives rise to the parol evidence rule.

In Korea, however, the formality of a contract is not required (不要式계약). The judge may find the existence of an agreement from the appearance of relevant parties at the court room and whole arguments of both parties in the proceedings. In other words, the parol evidence rule is not observed in the civil proceedings.

The entirety clause is one of the boilerplate clauses of an agreement.

Key words
entire agreement, parol evidence rule, in writing

Statute counter to Entirety
Article 202 of the Civil Procedure Act provides counter to the above-mentioned entire agreement.

Article 202 (Principle of Free Evaluation of Evidence)
 * A court shall determine, by its free conviction, whether or not an allegation of facts is true, taking account of the whole purport of pleadiings and the results of examination of evidence, on the basis of the ideology of social justice and equity in accordance with the principles of logic and experiences.

Sample provisions
The agreement of which governing law is English law has a typical provision on the Entire Agreement as follows:


 * This Agreement and the documents referred to hereing constitutes the entire agreement of the parties hereto with respect to the subject matter and shall merge and supersede any prior expressions of intent, discussions or understandings of any and every nature between them with respect to this transaction.