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LAWS11066 - Contracts

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2022

Term 3 - 2022 Profile
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Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 3 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 3 - 2024 Profile
Online

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 40%
2. Take Home Exam 50%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 10%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 81.48% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.73% response rate.

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.

Source: SUTE T1/2022
Feedback
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.
Recommendation
The unit will continue the emphasis on Teams for general communication, skills building discussions, practice IRACs and feed-forward.
Action Taken
Teams retained and skills building exercises retained.
Source: SUTE T1/2022
Feedback
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.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
Students advised in week 1 every term that the unit is challenging, resource-heavy and very time-intensive.
Source: SUTE T1/2023
Feedback
Over and beyond. What a superstar honestly, AJ is so passionate and caring. She truly strives for accountability and responsibility and leads by example. The content for me was just too much and overwhelming for a 1st year subject. There is just not enough built up capability to do this subject however I acknowledge it is needed to continue on further subjects. Thank you for your passionate enthusiastic engagements AJ.
Recommendation
The unit is very heavy content-wise and students are advised at the beginning and regularly throughout term that they need to ensure they set aside the full 12 hours per week required to do the readings and tutorial work in order to pass. However, to address the challenges of the unit, I offer a 2-hour tutorial every week, plus drop-in sessions every week, plus formative problem answering practice on Teams every week as well. Assignment coaching sessions are also offered, as well as the Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) mentoring. Students have a significant level of pastoral care in the unit, and a strong learning community which is facilitated on Teams.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE T2/2022
Feedback
AJ sets the standard for other lecturers high and I hope they live up to the challenge. She's by far the most engaging, motivating, encouraging and supportive lecturer I've had and she makes me want to keep studying. She's been in our corner backing us the entire way and she's made accommodations for us when we needed it like additional lectures and one on one chats. She's an asset to CQU.
Recommendation
Maintain the strong teacher presence in this unit with supportive pastoral care, extra student coaching sessions, drop in sessions. Emphasise the challenging nature of the unit and encourage students to maintain regularly scheduled study sessions and to take advantage of the PASS mentoring.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE T1/2023
Feedback
I found that the information given especially the IRAC tips and other documents made the assessment really confusing.
Recommendation
The teaching of IRAC for all first year units is being reviewed with a view to a more consistent approach. The IRAC tips document will be revised and expanded.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. 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.
  2. Interpret contract law questions and dispute scenarios, implementing statute and case law to explain advice.
  3. Interpret legal texts, databases, develop research strategies, locate appropriate legal authorities to discuss contract questions and problems.
  4. 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
2 - Take Home Exam
3 - Online Quiz(zes)
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication
2 - Problem Solving
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10