A self-enforcing agreement is an agreement that is enforced only by the parties to it; no external party can enforce or interfere with the agreement. (In this respect it differs from an enforceable

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

.) The agreement will stand so long as the parties believe it is mutually beneficial and it is not breached by any party.''A Theory of Self-Enforcing Agreements'' L.G. Tesler, University of Chicago
/ref> In game theory, games in which cooperative behaviour can only be enforced through self-enforcing agreements are called non-cooperative games, whereas games allowing strategies relying on external enforcement are called cooperative games. Nash equilibrium is the most common kind of self-enforcing agreement.

References

Agreements Game theory equilibrium concepts {{business-term-stub