Commercial Contracts: Problems of Performance, Breach and Termination - LAWS8023
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Kensington Campus
Career: Postgraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
Enrolment Requirements:
Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740 or 9230
CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
As well as investigating many practical problems in applying the law, the course makes a sustained attempt to assist students to discern frequently unrecognised interrelations between legal principles, and thus to acquire a better integrated view of an area of law which (despite its practical importance) is widely regarded as amorphous and highly challenging. The course addresses a range of difficult practical, legal and evidentiary questions that have been raised in recent appellate judgements but often remain incompletely answered.
LLM Specialisations
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
- To assist students to develop an in-depth understanding of the major principles of an area of contract law that is of immense importance in commercial activity: i.e. the law of performance, breach and discharge of contractual obligations
- To assist students to develop further their capacities for disciplined analysis of facts and for legal reasoning according to the methods of the common law
- To stimulate students to examine the law of contract in a social and historical context
Main Topics
- Contingent conditions precedent to performance
- Promissory and Concurrent conditions
- Discharge by performance
- Nature of breach
- Entitlement to terminate for breach and repudiation
- Entire and severable contracts
- Affirmation following serious breach
- Nature and consequences of termination for serious breach
Assessment
| Class participation | Preparation and engagement in class | 20% |
| Research essay | 4,000 words | 40% |
| Take home exam | 3 questions (1,500 words per question) | 40% |
Course Texts
Prescribed
None
Recommended
- Contract Law in Australia, 4th ed (2002) Butterworths, by JW Carter and DJ Harland
- Principles of Contract Law, 2nd ed (2005) Law Book Co, by JM Paterson, A. Robertson and P.G. Heffey
- The Law of Contract (1987) with supplements to 1993, Law Book Co, by D.W. Greig and JLR Davis, especially Chapters 20 and 21; (more advanced)
- Breach of Contract, 2nd ed (1991), Law Book Co, by J.W. Carter (more advanced)
Resources
Study Levels
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