• Inactive for Year: 2024/25

• Module Leader(s): Professor Ben Farrand
• Lecturer: Dr Aris Christidis

• Owning School: Newcastle Law School
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

While the most obvious aim of this course is to familiarise students with the principles and application of English contract law, this aim may be divided into a number of sub-objectives. They are as follows: -

1) To place contract within the general framework of private law in England more generally;

2) To place the English law of contract within the context of European Union regulation of contract law, as well as where this may be impacted by Brexit;

3) To place the understanding of contract law in England within a broader understanding of the role of societal regulation more broadly as part of a socio-legal understanding of contract law;

4) To analyse and explain how contracts are formed;

5) To analyse and explain the substance of contracts and how the inclusion and exclusion of rights and liabilities is circumscribed by law, including of unfair terms and additional protections for consumer;

6) To analyse and explain how voluntary obligations may be vitiated and on what grounds their validity may be challenged;

7) To analyse and explain how contracts break down, or otherwise come to an end, and the remedies available when they do;

Outline Of Syllabus

Contract Law is structured around four substantive aspects, namely formation, terms, vitiating factors and discharge of contract:

(i) Formation of contract:

• The history of contract and its place in the liberal tradition;
• Offer and acceptance;
• Consideration and the intent to create legal relations;
• Capacity and formalities

(ii) The terms of a contract:
• Express terms
• Implied terms and contractual interpretation
• Unfair terms
• Consumer contracts and consumer protection

(iii) Vitiating factors:
• Misrepresentation
• Mistake
• Illegality
• Duress

(iv) Discharge and remedies:
• Frustration
• Specific performance
• Damages

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures: There will be 18 one-hour lectures, divided into ‘bite-size’ chunks and interspersed with online learning activities throughout the year, focusing on the substantive module content and cover the remit of the knowledge outcomes. As in the university module, on the basis of one hour of content delivery including an additional hour of student preparation activity, this amounts to 36 hours of student activity.

Small group teaching: There will be five one-hour small group classes (totalling five student activity hours), held on a synchronous basis, which will cover the four areas of contract identified: contract formation, contract terms, consumer protection in the context of contract terms, vitiating factors, and remedies. Students will work together to develop a record of the seminar, which will be made available as an asynchronous source for students unable to attend, as well as a key revision material. These classes will meet the knowledge and cognitive skills outcomes.

Scheduled online contact time: There will be five hours’ worth of live Q&A events run through the discussion forums, in which students can ask questions regarding the policy paper activities and assessment, ensuring both immediate answers for students engaging in the activity, as well as providing a record that can be accessed by students unable to attend.

Academic skills activities (MCQs): There will be eight MCQ tests made available to students throughout the year, which can be completed in up to 30 minutes. These MCQs will provide students with an opportunity to test their understanding of the factual content of the course, reinforcing the knowledge outcomes and cognitive skills outcomes, with the provision of immediate formative feedback.

Academic skills activities (policy drafting exercises): There will be five policy drafting activities, in which students are provided with a deeper understanding of the purposes of a policy paper as a basis for legislative intervention in an area of contract law, with students then testing their ability to draft a paper by means of writing activities and quizzes on the rationale, form and substance of a policy paper, guided by a series of structured content pages on Canvas incorporating video clips, podcasts, exemplars and short module lead presentations. This content will amount to five hours of student learning activity.

Independent study: There will be 65 hours of student independent study associated with this module

Directed research and reading: In order to better understand the policy drafting process, students will engage in 50 hours of directed research and reading that broadens the cognitive and transferable skills of students as they learn to prepare and present information to different audiences – these materials will go beyond contract law to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of legal development and stakeholder engagement.

Guided independent study: Students will have 30 hours to prepare and complete their final assessment.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Zero Weighted Pass/Fail Assessments

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative assessment is provided in the form of the MCQs that are structured around the lecture material and small-group classes, allowing students to test factual knowledge important for being able to then apply and critique the principles of contract law. This will allow classes to be more focused on critique and application, as opposed to cementing substantive factual content. A ‘summative’ element of these quizzes is that students must complete them in order to complete a module – they are non-weighted, and the number of correctly answered questions does not count to the final grade, but in order to ensure students keep up with course content and remain engaged, the completion of these MCQs will be graded on a ‘pass/fail’ basis for completion of the eight quizzes.

The final summative component is a policy paper to be drafted on an area of contract law reform – rather than presenting students with a list of potential essay questions that they can answer, the drafting of a policy paper is linked to the skills activities identified in the learning objectives rationale, and allows for students to develop skills of policy drafting, innovation and adaptability, which are reflected in the Graduate Framework. By taking on the role of a body such as the Law Commission writing a Report, the Government in writing a White Paper, or European Commission Working Staff in writing a Commission Communication, students are better placed to not only understand the law as is, but develop the ability to interrogate, apply and critique the law in a way that reinforces a deeper structural knowledge of the subject and its underlying rationale. This helps to assess the transferable skills identified in the course as well as the cognitive skills and knowledge outcomes identified in the earlier sections of this form. Furthermore, due to the nature of the assessment, and its links to the drafting activities, the assessment is more resistant to traditional forms of plagiarism and the use of ‘essay mills’ to produce papers on demand for students.

Reading Lists

• LAW1121's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• LAW1121's Timetable