Commercial Law - LAWS3018
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
Enrolment Requirements:
Pre-requisite: Land Law (LAWS2383/JURD7283) OR Property, Equity & Trusts 2 (LAWS2382/JURD7282). Co-requisite: Business Associations (any of LAWS1091, LAWS2010 or JURD7224).
Excluded: JURD7318
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 a 6 unit elective, Commercial Law introduces students to the way in which general principles of common law, equity and statute law have developed to deal with the needs of commercial markets by focussing on:
- The law applicable to commercial sales of goods; and
- Agency law
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
Learning Outcomes
- Acquire an understanding of the way in which the basic concepts they have already learned in foundational courses (in particular, in contracts and property) are applied in a commercial environment.
- Acquire an understanding of several (new) key legal doctrines of importance in commercial transactions.
- Develop skills in thinking laterally about legal problems so as to find alternative approaches to achieving commercial goals.
- Appreciate the role of law in facilitating and regulating market activity in an evolving commercial environment.
- Learn how to give sound, practical legal advice to clients, a skill seldom developed in the core curriculum.
- Core disciplinary knowledge: students will acquire a contextual knowledge of commercial law and practice;
- Transferable intellectual skills: students will gain intellectual skills in analysis of primary and secondary legal sources, and critical reflection on current policy.
- Research skills: students will engage in research on topics of relevance to commercial law and policy.
- Communication skills: students will refine skills of oral and written communication by engaging in class discussion, presentation and written assessment tasks (see “Assessment” below);
- Personal and professional skills: students will develop an informed understanding of and sensitivity to potential legal issues arising in commercial practice, and begin to develop competency in advising on the structuring of commercial transaction s, and on the resolution of commercial disputes.
Main Topics
- Understanding the contract of sale and the multiple legal concepts of goods
- Contractual and statutory terms of contracts of sale
- The importance of accurate and precise description of the goods; correspondence with sample
- Fitness for purpose
- Merchantability
- Concepts of ownership: property, possession and transfer of risk
- When is possession legally recognised?
- Bailment of Goods
- Challenges to ownership: nemo dat quod habet and its exceptions
- Performance and breach in the sale of goods –the seller’s perspective
- Performance and breach in the sale of goods –the buyer’s perspective
- Contractual bases of agency law
- Ratification of agency; rights and obligations arising from conduct after formation of the contract of agency
- Agents and third parties; the doctrine of the undisclosed principal
- Mercantile Agents and problems of apparent authority
- Statutory Remedies
Assessment
Class participation (25%)
Mid-session examination (25%)
Final exam (50%)
Course Texts
Prescribed
- Commercial Law Commentary and Materials (Gail Pearson, Simon Fisher, Elisabeth Peden, GJ Tolhurst) 3rd Ed. ISBN: 9780455226286
- Students should also purchase a copy of LAWS3018 Supplementary Reading Materials from the UNSW Bookshop
Recommended
- Commercial Law (Samantha Traves) 2nd Ed ISBN: 9780409325362 2
- Goode on Commercial Law, Edited and Fully Revised by Ewan McKendrick 4th Ed. (Penguin Books)
- Australian Commercial Law (Clive Turner) 28th Ed. 2010, ISBN:9780455225753
Study Levels
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