In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
This unit is designed to provide you with knowledge of the fundamental principles of the law of Contract in Australia. Along with the law of Torts, this unit will provide you with a solid foundation in many of the civil law issues faced in legal practice. The unit first canvasses the theoretical underpinnings of contract law, before examining the principles of a valid and enforceable contract, including intention to create legal relations, capacity and consideration, including promissory estoppel. You will then investigate and reflect on the contents, construction and interpretation of a contract and the doctrine of privity. The unit then moves on to consider contracts with a vitiating element such as mistake, misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, unconscionable contracts, and illegal and void contracts. Finally the unit examines the ways in which a contract may be assigned, discharged, terminated, and the remedies available for non-performance of a contract. This unit meets the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board requirements for Contracts.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Co-requisite: LAWS11057 Introduction to Law
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2025
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from T1/2024 SUTE data
I couldn't be more grateful to have had AJ as my first term lecturer for my law degree. Her enthusiasm, dedication to the students and passion for law is so appreciated. Contracts has been an enjoyable subject but without AJ's thorough teaching it would have been incredibly difficult. I felt it was extremely critical to receive the personalized feedback on weekly content at the start of the unit and again on formal assessments. I really hope that CQU can encourage and strive to allocate enough resources/time for the lecturers to all be able to provide this as it has been an imperative part of my learning journey, especially so early on in the degree. I am daunted at the idea of taking on other subjects where the lecturers may not be as engaged with providing support and feedback and will really miss the environment that AJ has created this term.
Retain focus on pastoral care, connection and community-building via Teams, formative work and general student support.
Feedback from T1/2024 SUTE data
some of the videos had noise in the background and was really distracting to the point where I just switched it off and worked through the slideshows and other reading material instead.
Review the videos to ascertain which are the affected ones.
- Identify and discuss prerequisites and formal requirements for contracting, interpretation, performance and discharge of contracts, remedies for breach, and differentiate the various basic contract law theories.
- Interpret contract law questions and dispute scenarios, implementing statute and case law to explain advice.
- Interpret legal texts, databases, develop research strategies, locate appropriate legal authorities to discuss contract questions and problems.
- Develop structured arguments to discuss and explain responses to contract problems, communicate effectively in writing.
This unit satisfies the Priestley 11 requirements for Contracts as approved by the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 10% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||
| 3 - Examination - 50% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||