A South African lawyer, Robert de Rooy has created a new form of contract that uses the format of illustrated pictures to lay out the terms for each of the parties.
Living in a developing country, and one of the world’s most unequal societies, he wanted to do something about the vulnerability of people when they sign contracts, and especially people that are poor and illiterate. From this, the idea of using comics as contracts was born. Comic contracts are legally binding illustrated contracts for illiterate people. De Rooy is developing, researching and advocating comic contracts as a way for illiterate people to independently understand contracts, guide behaviour and improve the relationship between contracting parties. He has explained that: “We produce illustrated contracts for people who are illiterate, people who are not literate in the language of the contract, employers with multi-cultural workplaces or companies that wish to transact with people who suffer from reading or intellectual disabilities. We want to enable people to be able to independently understand the contracts they are expected to sign.”
Read more about Robert de Rooy on the Lawyers as Changemakers website.