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LAWS20058 - Australian Commercial Law

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This course provides students with an introduction to commercial law within the parameters of Australia's common law based legal system. Topics include the origins of Australia's present legal system and the current legal environment in which commercial law operates to regulate commercial transacting between firms as well as individuals. A particular study is made of the nature, terms, validity, operation and discharge of contracts, the process of litigation and alternate dispute resolution methods. While commercial law topics studied include agency, the sale of goods, trade practices law, real and personal property, torts, securities and bankruptcy. If you have successfully completed the course LAWS20028 you should not enrol in this course.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

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 - 2014

Term 1 - 2017 Profile
Brisbane
Distance
Melbourne
Sydney
Term 2 - 2017 Profile
Brisbane
Distance
Melbourne
Sydney
Term 3 - 2017 Profile
Brisbane
Distance
Melbourne
Sydney
Term 1 - 2020 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2020 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 3 - 2020 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 1 - 2021 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2021 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 3 - 2021 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 1 - 2022 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2022 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 3 - 2022 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 3 - 2023 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
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 Postgraduate 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. Online Test 20%
2. Written Assessment 20%
3. Examination 60%

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 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 54.55% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 36.97% 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, self-reflection.
Feedback
Students are mostly accounting or business students and may be international. Law subjects are difficult for them and students struggle to answer legal questions.
Recommendation
Workshops, which are already well received, can focus more on the basic concepts and the skills required for answering law questions.
Action Taken
Workshop activities were revised. There is now less focus on legal problem questions and greater emphasis on developing understanding of key legal principles, rules and concepts.
Source: Student feedback, self-reflection.
Feedback
Students have difficulty facing legal assessment tasks.
Recommendation
The assessment items can be supported more with discussions both in class and in support materials.
Action Taken
The unit coordinator provides a recorded assignment advice, class recorded feedback (assignment and test), online assessment workshops and reviews assignment drafts. Time is allocated in all workshops discuss to discuss the assessment tasks.
Source: Student Evaluations
Feedback
Need for easier learning methodology
Recommendation
Review of entire unit - legal topics/weekly content, lectures, workshop activities, Moodle resources and assessment
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. delineate the structure, institutions, key functions and processes of the Australian legal system in which contracts and commercial transactions are devised and undertaken,
  2. demonstrate a sound comprehension of the main concepts, doctrines, principles, legislation and case law in the contract and commercial law topics covered,
  3. recognise the types of legal problems likely to be contained in commonly encountered business transactions,
  4. employ legal skills and critical reasoning to identify and analyse the variable and discrete configuration of obligations, rights and remedies attaching to parties across a range of contracts and business transactions,
  5. make informed judgements as to the likely legal outcomes of standard types of business transactions, coupled with the potential for managing them in a proactive, risk-avoiding and value maximising manner.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Online Test
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Examination
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Advanced Level
Professional Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Online Test
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Examination