LAWS13015 - Principles of Commercial Law

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2023

Term 2 - 2023 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. Practical Assessment 50%
2. Practical Assessment 50%

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 2 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 4.9 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 50% 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: Student Feedback
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.
Recommendation
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
Action Taken
Structure of having only 2 assessments was retained.
Source: Student Feedback
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.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
All unit material was available to students from Day 1, and resources listed in response were highlighted for students on Moodle.
Source: Student Feedback
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.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
As noted, there are few options to incentivise participation - accordingly, no action could be taken
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Students found the unit practical and relevant: "Commercial Law has been an incredibly useful unit, with a heap of applicable learning and content that I know I'll use in my years in practice. Varied and useful material!" "Such a nourishing unit that has really helped me to learn. Everything flowed perfectly - from one week to the next. The assessments where incredibly informative and I’m thankful for this experience."
Recommendation
Unit material and structure to be retained. Guiding focus on practical relevance and authentic learning to be retained and extended.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Variation in assessment tasks "Maybe a slight variation in the two assessment pieces?"
Recommendation
Options for varied assessments, including practical tasks like client interviews, are being explored for next year
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Direct feedback from student
Feedback
Quality of textbook - textbook is clear and laid-out in a manner that facilitates learning
Recommendation
Textbook to be retained for future offerings
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Comprehend, identify and apply the fundamental concepts of domestic commercial law
  2. Demonstrate skills in ascertaining facts
  3. Demonstrate proficient legal research skills to accurately identify issues and compose solutions in respect of commercial law problems
  4. 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 • • • • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •
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 • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
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
1 - Practical Assessment • • • • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •