In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
This unit is designed to provide you with knowledge of the fundamental principles of the law of Contract in Australia. Along with the law of Torts, this unit will provide you with a solid foundation in many of the civil law issues faced in legal practice. The unit first canvasses the theoretical underpinnings of contract law, before examining the principles of a valid and enforceable contract, including intention to create legal relations, capacity and consideration, including promissory estoppel. You will then investigate and reflect on the contents, construction and interpretation of a contract and the doctrine of privity. The unit then moves on to consider contracts with a vitiating element such as mistake, misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, unconscionable contracts, and illegal and void contracts. Finally the unit examines the ways in which a contract may be assigned, discharged, terminated, and the remedies available for non-performance of a contract. This unit meets the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board requirements for Contracts.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Co-requisite: LAWS11057 Introduction to Law
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2023
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from SUTE T1/2022
Contracts was an excellent course, it is a quite an intensive course however I do believe the workload was doable/reasonable within the weekly allocated time. I think Teams was very useful - it's far superior to Moodle forums in my opinion. it enabled much better interaction with students and the lecturer. I think the most important part of being successful in this course is the first few weeks of it. In particular, the skills building tasks, weekly tasks and the feedback which was provided.
The unit will continue the emphasis on Teams for general communication, skills building discussions, practice IRACs and feed-forward.
Feedback from SUTE T1/2022
AJ is an excellent tutor who goes above and beyond to assist students. Her depth of knowledge and expertise is very impressive. The content is way too heavy for the time allocated.
The content is challenging in this unit, although we now have a 2-hour weekly tutorial rather than a 1-hour in order to provide additional lecturer contact time to discuss content. Students will continue to be advised that the unit requires good time management skills and keeping up with the reading from week 1 onwards.
- Identify and discuss prerequisites and formal requirements for contracting, interpretation, performance and discharge of contracts, remedies for breach, and differentiate the various basic contract law theories.
- Interpret contract law questions and dispute scenarios, implementing statute and case law to explain advice.
- Interpret legal texts, databases, develop research strategies, locate appropriate legal authorities to discuss contract questions and problems.
- Develop structured arguments to discuss and explain responses to contract problems, communicate effectively in writing.
This unit satisfies the Priestley 11 requirements for Contracts as approved by the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||
| 2 - Take Home Exam - 50% | ||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Textbooks
An Introduction to the Law of Contract
Edition: 10th edn (2020)
Authors: Stephen Graw
Thomson Reuters
Pyrmont Pyrmont , NSW , Australia
ISBN: 9780455244921
Binding: Paperback
Additional Textbook Information
For some topics, the Graw prescribed text needs further augmentation. Readings will be selected from the recommended (not prescribed) texts:
1. Lindy Willmott, Sharon Christensen and Des Butler, Contract Law (5th ed, 2018); and
2. Des Butler, Sharon Christensen, Bill Dixon and Lindy Wilmott, Contract Law Case Book (3rd ed, 2018).
Both of these texts are freely accessible in the library as linked above (you may need to login with your CQU details first). However, please be aware that these library online texts are *not available to students during the scheduled exam period.*