Gentlemen's agreement
From Free net encyclopedia
- For the informal U.S.-Japan immigration treaty, see Gentlemen's Agreement
A Gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two parties. It may be written or verbal. The essence of a gentleman's agreement is that it relies upon the honour of the parties for its fulfilment, rather than being in any way enforceable. It is, therefore, the opposite of a legal agreement or contract, which can be enforced if necessary.
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Negative Connotations
The term has come to sound distinctly old fashioned, both because of its implicit assumption that the parties will be men, and because of its assumption that they will be gentlemen (and the old-fashioned nature of that phrase). And after interwar politics in Europe the phrase has gained somewhat the connotation of an agreement easily broken.
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Examples
- The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal agreement between the United States and Japan. Japan agreed not to issue passports to citizens for travel to the United States, thus eliminating immigration. In exchange, schools in San Francisco, California, agreed not to discriminate against students of Japanese descent.
- The phrase occurs repeatedly in interwar political relations.
- Britain signed a 'gentlemen's agreement' with Mussolini in 1937 over Naval access to the Mediterranean.
- British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's discussions with Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement of 1938 which is described in similar terms.
- Hitler's agreement with the Austrian government in 1937 in which he guaranteed the country's independence.
- A gentlemen's agreement that once covered the City of Philadelphia by limiting the height of all buildings within the city to be no taller than the statue of William Penn that sits on top of Philadelphia City Hall. The Curse of Billy Penn is a coincidental anecdote in relation to the agreement.
- In baseball, the unwritten rules that formed the baseball color line from 1887 to 1946.
- In American football, an equally restrictive covenant against African-Americans existed in the NFL from 1933 to 1945.
- The agreement by the United States press not to print photographs of President Franklin Roosevelt that showed his wheelchair or leg braces.
- An agreement between the United States Army and Air Force prohibiting the army from operating combat jet airplanes.
- A (now-defunct) agreement between the major Japanese auto manufacturers to limit the maximum advertised engine power of their cars to 280 PS (206 kW or 276 hp).
- Boeing Commercial Airplanes signed exclusivity contracts with American Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Delta Air Lines in separate but nearly identical arrangements, regarding the supply of airliners. The European Union forced the contracts to be voided when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, but all parties are continuing to adhere to the terms under gentlemen's agreements.
- In 1998, all major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers voluntarily agreed to restrict the top speed of their bikes to 186 miles per hour (300 kilometers per hour).Template:Fact The late 1990s saw "power wars" between various motorcycle manufacturers that culminated in Suzuki's 1300 cc GSX-1300R Hayabusa, the first production motorcycle to exceed 300 km/h (186 mph), and Kawasaki's ZX-12R, designed to exceed 320 km/h (200 mph). Eventually a "gentlemen's agreement" was promoted by various European governments that threatened to impose stiff tariffs (a so-called "speed tax") on bikes that went over 186mph. The safety authorities stated that 186 mph or 300 km/h was "fast enough" for anyone to go on a motorcycle.Template:Fact There is no such restriction in place for cars. Before the gentleman's, agreement there was a brief period of time in 1999 when Suzuki produced a Hayabusa capable of reaching 80 mph in first gear, and 220 mph (352 km/h) off the production line.
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See also
- Gentleman's Agreement is a 1947 movie directed by Elia Kazan starring Gregory Peck about anti-Semitism.
- Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)
- Memorandum of Understanding