On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Analyse, evaluate and apply general principles of contract law, undertake legal research using a range of primary and secondary materials at a foundational level.

2. Identify relevant legal issues and apply relevant legal principles to generate solutions to complex problems relating to contractual dealings.

3. Develop well-structured, cohesive and persuasive written arguments for a legal audience. 

4. Exercise judgement in the identification and application of relevant legal principles to a contractual dispute in an academic environment.

5. Embody professionalism and ethical behaviour in providing legal advice in an academic environment.

6. Use reflection and feedback to inform development of the capacity to effectively analyse problems and apply relevant legal principles to generate meaningful solutions.


The Legal Practitioners' Education and Admissions Council (LPEAC) sets rules for the academic requirements for admission to legal practice in South Australia.

Students must demonstrate a satisfactory level of understanding and application of 11 core areas of legal knowledge. This course teaches the following topics within these core areas:

CONTRACT:
Formation, including capacity, formalities, privity and consideration
Content and construction of contract
Vitiating factors
Discharge
Remedies
Assignment
 
EQUITY:
Fiduciary obligations
Equitable remedies

Students will be supplied, through MyUni, with weekly study guides that outline the material and issues to be covered in both lectures and seminars.

The prescribed textbook for the course is Stewart, Swain and Fairweather, Contract Law: Principles and Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Students may want to acquire a casebook with conveniently edited summaries of various court decisions that involve relevant issues of contract law, though this is not essential. The following casebook is recommended:

•  Yin et al, Contract Law: Cases and Materials (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

Here are some other texts that students might wish to use for reference, in addition to the prescribed text:

•  Giancaspro and Langos, Contract Law: Principles and Practice (LexisNexis, 2022)
•  Paterson and Robertson, Principles of Contract Law (6th ed, Thomson, 2020)
•  Carter, Contract Law in Australia (8th ed, LexisNexis, 2023)
•  Willmott, Christensen, Butler and Dixon, Contract Law (5th ed, OUP, 2018)
•  Seddon and Bigwood, Cheshire & Fifoot’s Law of Contract (12th Aust ed, Lexis Nexis, 2022)

The MyUni course page for Contract Law can be accessed at https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au.

Besides this course outline and the study guides, students can use MyUni to  access copies of the PowerPoints used in lectures, recordings of the  lectures, any materials that students are specifically required to read for the seminars, and assessment tasks. There is also a Discussion Board for the course.

The Contract Law course has a value of 3 units and will involve a 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour seminar each week. Please check Access Adelaide or the Course Planner to see the distribution of classes.

The course requires a combined weekly commitment of 3 hours of lectures and seminars or a total of 36 hours of formal class time across the semester. In addition to the time spent on lectures and seminars, there is a requirement that students prepare for the seminars. To actively and productively participate, students will have to do reading and preparation. Students should expect to devote an average of 12 hours per week to their studies in the course, including the scheduled classes and the online quizzes.

The following topics will be covered:

Week 1	Formation Pt 1
Week 2	Formation Pt 2
Week 3	Preliminary agreements / Parties
Week 4	Terms
Week 5	Interpreting contracts / Limiting liability
Week 6	Performance
Week 7	Varying terms and parties
Week 8	Termination Pt 1
Week 9	Termination Pt 2
Week 10	Vitiating factors
Week 11	Remedies
Week 12	Revision

None

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcome
Quizzes (10)	Individual	Throughout semester	5% (10 x 0.5%)		Not redeemable	1, 6
Assignment	Individual	Friday Week 5, 2pm	30%	1500 words	Redeemable by final exam for mark of at least 45%	1-6
Final exam	Individual	Exam period	65 or 95%	3 hours		1-6

The assignment is compulsory, because it covers essential material that is not assessed in the final exam. Failure to complete this item of assessment will result in course failure.

1. Online quizzes (5%)
Students will be expected to complete 10 online quizzes, released in Weeks 3-9 and 11-13. Each quiz will involve 10 multiple-choice questions on material and issues previously covered in lectures. To complete a quiz, students must answer all questions correctly. Each quiz may be attempted as many times as is necessary to complete it. Each quiz successfully completed will be worth 0.5% of the total mark for the course. Each quiz must be completed before the end of the week in which it is released.

2. Assignment (30% redeemable)
This compulsory exercise will involve a single problem-style question, raising issues relating to any or all of the following topics: Formation, Preliminary agreements, and Parties. Answers must not exceed 1,500 words in length. The question will be available on the Friday of Week 4, from 9:00am on the course website. The due date will be the Friday of Week 5, 2:00pm.

The assignment mark is redeemable, for those who get a mark of at least 45%. If a student gets at least that mark for the assignment, but does better on the final exam, only their final exam mark will count towards their overall result. Otherwise, the assignment counts for 30% of the overall mark.

3. Final Exam (65% or 95%)
There will be a 3 hour exam. The exam may test understanding of any of the issues covered in the course, with the exception of Formation, Preliminary agreements, and Parties.

The weighting of the final exam will vary as follows:
• for a student who gets below 45% for the assignment or does better on the assignment than the final exam – 65%
• for a student who gets at least 45% for the assignment but does better on the final exam – 95%

Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

All assignments in this course are to be submitted electronically. Details on how to do this will be provided with the assignment instructions. All assessments will be submitted and monitored through text or code comparative software (e.g. Turnitin) where possible.

All written work in the Law school is required to comply with the approved Law School style guide, The Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

Extensions: Requests for extensions must be made electronically according to law school policy. Extensions will be granted only for unexpected illness, hardship or on compassionate grounds in accordance with University Policy. Work commitments, travel, holidays or sporting engagements are not unexpected circumstances.

Penalties:

1. Late Submission: Submission penalties of 5% (of the total mark of the assignment) for each day (or part thereof) will be deducted for late submission (including weekends and public holidays). So an assignment graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is up to one day late, for a final mark of 58%, 10% if it is two days late, etc.
2. Word Length: Assignments which exceed the allocated word length will be subject to a penalty of 5% of total marks available per 100 words or part thereof. So with a word limit of 2,000, an assignment graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is 2001 words long, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 2101 words long, etc.  The word count for this purpose includes all headings and all citations, whether in footnotes or otherwise, but excludes cover page information.  Quotations and all referencing information are included in the word count.

Finality of Assessment Grades

Students are advised that Course Coordinators will not enter into negotiations of any kind with any student regarding changes to their grades. It is irrelevant, in any given circumstance, that only a minimal number of additional marks are required to inflate a student’s grade for any individual assessment item or course as a whole. Pursuant to the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policyand the Adelaide Law School Assessment Policies and Procedures, grades may only be varied through the appropriate channels for academic review (such as an official re-mark).

Moderation

In accordance with the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, course coordinators ‘ensure that appropriate marking guidelines and cross-marking moderation processes across markers are in place’ in each course. Procedures adopted by Adelaide Law School to ensure consistency of marking in courses with multiple markers include:

• assurance of the qualifications of markers, and their knowledge of the content covered in each course;
• detailed marking guidelines and assessment rubrics to assist in the marking of items of assessment;
• sharing of example marked assessments at various grade bands across markers;
• reviewing of selected marked assessments from each marker by the course coordinator;
• comparison of the marks and their distribution across markers; and
• the availability of re-marking of assessments in accordance with Adelaide Law School’s Assessment Policies and Procedures.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners

Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment results at the University are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Access Adelaide at the end of each semester.

Student feedback The course is constantly being updated and revised to reflect the evolution of the law, to respond to student feedback, and to engage with the latest teaching practices. Student feedback is collected each time the course is run, including through SELT reports. Previous SELT reports, and staff feedback on them, are posted on the course MyUni site for students to view and consider.

The University Writing Centre provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the University of Adelaide.

The centre offers practical advice and strategies for students to master reading, writing, note-taking, time management, oral presentation skills, referencing techniques and exam preparation for success at university through seminars, workshops and individual consultations.

Lex Salus Program

Lex Salus (law and wellbeing) is an initiative of the Adelaide Law School aimed at destigmatising mental health issues; promoting physical, mental and emotional wellness; building a strong community of staff and students; and celebrating diversity within the school. It also seeks to promote wellness within the legal profession, through the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Honourable Chris Kourakis, as the official Patron of the program.

Students can participate in the Lex Salus program by attending barbecue lunches, pancake breakfasts, knitting and crochet circles, seminars, guest speakers, conferences and other activities. Our Facebook page, website and regular all-student emails promote upcoming events, and have tips and information on wellness.

Our Lex Salus YouTube channel also includes videos on topics like managing stress, and interviews with LGBTQ lawyers and their supporters which celebrate diversity and individuality. Students who commit to 10 hours of volunteering with Lex Salus in one year can have their service recognised on their academic transcript and through a thank you morning tea with the Chief Justice and law school staff.

Student Life Counselling Support

The University’s Student Life Counselling Support service provides free and confidential service to all enrolled students. We encourage you to contact the Student Life Counselling Support service on 8313 5663 to make an appointment to deal with any issues that may be affecting your study and life.

Academic Integrity

All students must be familiar with the University’s Academic Integrity Policy. Academic Misconduct is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the University. Academic Misconduct (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South Australia to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South Australia. Academic Integrity is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.