Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT5 S4 P1 Q3 Explanation

Government Contracts

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsInferenceLaw

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Passage

Governments of developing countries occasionally enter into economic development agreements with foreign investors who provide capital and technological expertise that may not be readily available in such countries. Besides the normal economic risk that accompanies such enterprises, investors face the additional risk that the host government may attempt unilaterally to change in constitutes a general principle of law. However, their argument is flawed on at least two counts.

First, in French law not all government contracts are treated as administrative contracts. Some contracts are designated as administrative by specific statute, in which case the contractor is made aware of the applicable legal rules upon entering into agreement with the government. Alternatively, the contracting government agency can itself designate a contract is thus prevented from modifying those contractual terms that define the financial balance of the contract.

Second, the French law of administrative contracts, although adopted by several countries, is not so universally accepted that it can be embraced as a general principle of law. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, government contracts are governed by the ordinary law of contracts, with the result that the to modify or terminate agreements unilaterally derives from specific contract provisions, not from inherent state power.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

The author implies that which one of the following is true of

Answer choices

  1. Trap4% picked this

    They provide greater economic benefits to the governments that are parties to such agreements than

  2. Trap1% picked this

    They are interpreted differently by courts in the United Kingdom than they are by courts

  3. Trap4% picked this

    They have proliferated in recent years as a result of governments’ attempts to make them

  4. Correct88% picked this

    They entail greater risk to investors when the governments that enter into such agreements reserve the right to modify unilaterally

    Why this is right

    Answer D is correct.

    Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Trap3% picked this

    They have become less attractive to foreign investors as an increasing number of governments that enter into such agreements consider them governed

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