Newcastle University

Pre Requisite Comment

This is an advanced module that requires students to have first studied the basic areas of private law.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

In this module, students will examine the range of remedies that might be available in a private law claim. The module will be useful for students looking to progress to practice as a solicitor or a barrister as remedies are an important component of bringing any legal claim, and are specifically examined as part of the new Solicitors Regulation Authority exams. This is an advanced module and students will need a thorough understanding of the range of private law claims that might be brought in any given situation. The remedies will be studied in a practical context with students introduced to a range of legal skills that might be utilised in practice, including client interviewing, preparing a letter of advice, negotiation and/or mooting.

Outline Of Syllabus

•       Introduction to the structure of remedial law
•       Compensation
•       Restitution
•       Compelling performance or preventing a wrong – specific performance and injunctions
•       Compelling performance or preventing a wrong – the award of an agreed sum
•       Proprietary remedies
•       Remedies as vindication
•       Choosing the appropriate remedy



Practical legal skills will be covered in fortnightly workshops.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this module students will be able to:

* Explain the basic structure of remedial law;

* Identify the various remedies that might be available for a private law claim and the circumstances in which those remedies might arise;

* Determine the differences in awarding remedies in different areas of private law.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of this module students will be able to:

* Identify relevant legal issues, apply relevant concepts, principles and rules, identify evidence needed, make judgements and reach supported conclusions on the basis of sound and informed reasoning;

* Write and speak with care and precision in the analysis and synthesis of the law;

* Structure legal argument and analysis;

* Exercise critical judgement;

* Discern between the merits or otherwise of particular arguments;

* Assess the practical implications of choosing particular private law claims and/or remedies for a client;

* Assess what’s important to a client and advise accordingly.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Students will be encouraged in this module to think about private law beyond the boundaries of the modules which they have previously studied (eg contract, tort and equity). They will do this by comparing the various remedies that are available for private law claims. By focussing on the interests of prospective clients, students will develop the necessary skills to identify and select appropriate private law remedies. The lectures in this module will be used to examine the various remedies that are available for private law claims. In the workshops, students will be taught practical skills that they will utilise in legal practice and use those skills to advocate appropriate remedial responses for hypothetical clients.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment in this module is practically oriented, to enable students to see the significance of private law remedies to legal practice.

In a workshop at the beginning of this module, students will undertake a client interview to assess what information might be relevant to obtain from a client to be able to properly advise that client on an appropriate remedial response to their claim. This is formative only to allow students to ‘learn by doing’. It will enable students to make necessary connections between legal claims and facts and to think more broadly about the private law they have already studied in their degree.

After receiving appropriate skills development training, students will then put the knowledge of remedial law they have developed in this module into practice by completing two professional skills development assessments. The first is a letter of advice to a client in which the student will be required to explain the remedial options available to the client in the circumstances and which option is to be preferred and why. In the second, students will take steps to secure that remedy for the client through either a negotiation or moot (at the election of the student). Through these assessments, students will learn the practical significance of the content they are studying.

General Notes

N/A