Overview
This elective unit builds upon knowledge acquired in LAWS11061 Contracts A and LAWS11062 Contracts B. Topics have been selected that are relevant first to the nature of specific legal relationships. These are bailments, sale of goods, business organisations and agency. Secondly topics have been selected that are relevant to the application of commercial rules. These are rules, mainly statutory, found in consumer protection, restrictive trade practices, credit law, electronic commerce and guarantees. Commercial law in legal practice essentially is about finding the correct solution to a specific legal problem. Currently and in the future this requires correct diagnosis and the primary purpose of this unit is to teach you the process of diagnosis, using the topics as common examples.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisite: 48 credit points of law units
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 2 - 2021
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 Student Feedback
It would be great to have more assessments, with each worth less marks. Having only two assessments worth 50% each doesn't leave much room if there are issues with understanding the content. If they were to add a quiz or another small assessment worth 10% or 20%, it would more accurately assess knowledge of the unit. Otherwise, the assessments were relevant.
Student assessment must balance the high stakes of having fewer assessments worth more marks, with assessment fatigue and clashes with other courses from having more assessments worth fewer marks. Option to include a small quiz delivered early in the Term will be explored
Feedback from Student Feedback
More scaffolding of learning is required before being delivered an assessment to complete. This is a problem with the majority of law modules at CQU. It leaves the student with too much of a gap to breach, especially when the student is a distance learner and doe not have easily available access to information which is intrinsic to the area of law.
Currently the unit provides a high degree of scaffolding, both through the Week 1 discussion of the FILA method, and through provision of model answers to tutorial problems. No action is required, other than to give clearer guidance to point students to these resources.
Feedback from Student Feedback
Student participation in the tasks allocated was quite disappointing. Unsure how to increase student attendance levels but would be good if more showed up so that a more broad discussion could occur; It would have been great to have more students participating in the weekly Zoom.
No action to be taken as options to incentivise student participation (awarding marks for attending, not recording all or part of tutorial) would disadvantage students who are unable to attend. Students will be strongly encouraged to attend but cannot be forced to do so.
- Comprehend, identify and apply the fundamental concepts of domestic commercial law
- Demonstrate skills in ascertaining facts
- Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems
- Critically evaluate case law and legislation in constructing coherent, logical and creative answers to commercial law problems, including identifying legal relationships, obligations, rights and remedies.
N/A
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||
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 | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
Australian Commercial Law
Edition: 32 (2019)
Authors: Clive Turner and John Trone
Thomson Reuters
Sydney Sydney , NSW , Australia
ISBN: 9780455241395
Binding: Paperback
Additional Textbook Information
Both paper and eBook versions can be purchased at the CQUni Bookshop here: http://bookshop.cqu.edu.au (search on the Unit code).
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th ed
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
j.deem@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019) Chapter 19 (32nd); Ch 5 (33rd)
Week 2 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019) Chapter 15 (32nd); Ch 3 (33rd)
Week 3 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019), Chapter 26 (32nd); Ch 12 (33rd)
Week 4 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019) Chapter 13 (32nd); Ch 2 (33rd)
Week 5 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Practical Assessment 1 due 5pm Friday Vacation Week (20 August 2021)
Written Assessment 1 Due: Vacation Week Friday (20 Aug 2021) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Assessment 1 Discussions
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Diagnosis of the application of a commercial rule
Chapter
Week 7 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Consumer Protection
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019), Chapter 17 (32nd); Ch 6 (33rd)
Week 8 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Competition Law
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019), Chapter 18 (32nd); Ch 7 (33rd)
Week 9 Study Guide
Other materials listed in the Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Credit Law and Guarantees
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019) Chapters 20 and 14 (32nd); Chs 10 and 8 (33rd)
Week 10 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
E-Commerce
Chapter
Clive Turner and John Trone, Australian Commercial Law, 32nd or 33rd edition (Thomson Reuters, 2019) Chapter 22 (32nd); Ch 15 (33rd)
Week 11 Study Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Assessment 2 Discussions and Unit Review
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Practical Assessment 2 due 5pm Wednesday Week 12 (6 Oct 2021)
Written Assessment 2 Due: Week 12 Wednesday (6 Oct 2021) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical Assessment
Assessment One is designed to test your ability to diagnose legal relationships in the context of the commercial law concepts relevant to Weeks 1 to 5 (inclusive). At the start of Week 5 two problems will be posted. Each student will prepare a letter of advice in respect of each problem during Week 5 and the Vacation Week and due at the end of Vacation Week. This timeframe is deliberately tight and is designed to simulate providing advice to a client in a timely fashion in a commercial practice setting. The maximum word count is 600 words for each report (i.e., 1200 total), excluding references. You submit both reports in one document to Moodle in Word format.
The reports are in the form of an advice to a specified client. You do not need to repeat the facts in the problem, except as they are relevant to a particular issue. Keep the FILA method ('Facts-Issues-Law-Application) in mind but do not use FILA in a formulaic way. You may advise what further investigations should be made. Complete advice should be alert to all possibilities.
Vacation Week Friday (20 Aug 2021) 5:00 pm AEST
Week 7 Friday (3 Sept 2021)
1. Demonstrate a sound understanding of commercial law concepts relevant to Weeks 1 to 5 (inclusive).
2. Demonstrate an ability to identify and address the particular matters of fact and law raised in the set topics.
3. Demonstrate sound skills in ascertaining facts.
4. Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems.
5. Demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate case law and legislation in constructing coherent, logical and creative answers to commercial law problems, including in identifying legal relationships, obligations, rights and remedies.
6. Apply appropriate and professional written language skills.
7. Demonstrate clear skills in legal analysis, problem solving and critical thinking.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Comprehend, identify and apply the fundamental concepts of domestic commercial law
- Demonstrate skills in ascertaining facts
- Demonstrate skills in ascertaining facts
- Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems
- Critically evaluate case law and legislation in constructing coherent, logical and creative answers to commercial law problems, including identifying legal relationships, obligations, rights and remedies.
2 Practical Assessment
Assessment Two is designed to test your ability to diagnose legal relationships in the context of the commercial law concepts relevant to Weeks 7 to 11 (inclusive). At the start of Week 10 two problems for will be posted. Each student will prepare a letter of advice in respect of each problem during Weeks 10 and 11 and due on Wednesday of Week 12. This timeframe is designed to simulate providing advice to a client in a timely fashion in a commercial practice setting. The maximum word count is 600 words for each report (i.e., 1200 total), excluding references. You submit both reports in one document to Moodle in Word format.
The reports are in the form of an advice to a specified client. You do not need to repeat the facts in the problem, except as they are relevant to a particular issue. Keep the FILA method ('Facts-Issues-Law-Application) in mind but do not use FILA in a formulaic way. You may advise what further investigations should be made. Complete advice should be alert to all possibilities.
Week 12 Wednesday (6 Oct 2021) 5:00 pm AEST
Exam Week Wednesday (20 Oct 2021)
1. Demonstrate a sound understanding of commercial law concepts relevant to Weeks 7 to 10 (inclusive).
2. Demonstrate an ability to identify and address the particular matters of fact and law raised in the set topics.
3. Demonstrate sound skills in ascertaining facts.
4. Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems.
5. Demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate case law and legislation in constructing coherent, logical and creative answers to commercial law problems, including in identifying legal relationships, obligations, rights and remedies.
6. Apply appropriate and professional written language skills.
7. Demonstrate clear skills in legal analysis, problem solving and critical thinking.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Comprehend, identify and apply the fundamental concepts of domestic commercial law
- Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems
- Critically evaluate case law and legislation in constructing coherent, logical and creative answers to commercial law problems, including identifying legal relationships, obligations, rights and remedies.
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
