LAW2341: Advanced Issues in Contract Law

• LAW1121 Introduction to English Law and Legal Method
• LAW1071 Contract Law
• LAW1051 Tort Law

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• Building on the foundations laid in Contract Law, this module will explore in greater detail advanced issues in contract law and contract theory.

• Advanced Contract Law builds on the foundational Contract Law module and explores some of the more controversial practical and theoretical issues in greater depth, covering both complex problems arising in litigation and contentions questions of scholarly debate. Special attention is paid to the points of intersection between contract law and other branches of private law (such as tort law) and situating contract theory, and in particular theories of contract, within broader philosophical debates about private law and about undertaking moral and legal obligations in the private sphere.
• Topics may vary from year to year and may, in particular, cover the following material: analytic and normative theories of contract and the question of a paradigm of contract, contractual enforceability (voluntariness and the objective approach to ascertaining intention, pre-contractual liability and the intersection between contract, tort, and unjust enrichment), limits on specifying the content of contracts (implied terms, unfair terms, and market inalienability), unconscionable bargains and vitiating contracts (questions of consent and procedural and substantive (un)fairness), contractual liability (standard of liability and various remedial issues, concurrency of contract and tort claims), ways to end contracts (eg critical analysis of the doctrines of termination and frustration).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students should be able to:
• Achieve advanced knowledge of contract law, considerably expanding and deepening their understanding the foundational Contract Law module.
• Acquire in-depth familiarity with analytic and normative theories of contract.
• Enhance their appreciation of values and policies underlying contract law rules.
• Understand points of intersection between contract law and other branches of private law.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students should be able to:
• Critically assess and address contentious issues in contract doctrine and contract theory.
• Think critically about theories of contract and engage into broader philosophical debates about private law and undertaking moral and legal obligations in the private sphere.
• Consider and evaluate the role of the state in regulating contractual relations.
• Identify the appropriate causes of action in cases of concurrency of private law claims

Key Skills:

• Students should be able to:
• Demonstrate sophisticated analytical skills and ability to think critically.
• Engage in critical reading of legal, academic, and policy texts.
• Write an argument-driven research paper, present their ideas and work for discussion amongst their peers and respond to the work and ideas of others in a charitable and scholarly fashion.
• Conduct normative evaluation of the law leading to desirable law reforms or judicial outcomes.

• This module is a 20-credit module. It is delivered by 12 x 2-hour seminars, which would normally cover six topics. Seminars are designed to explore a particular topic in depth, drawing upon a range of primary and secondary sources in private law and private law theory. Students are expected to research topics before seminars and discuss in class.
• The formative assignment is a 2000-word essay and will test the knowledge, critical skills, and research skills of students. It should prepare them for the summative assessment, in which the students will be given a choice of topics to write a 4000-word essay.

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