Unit Synopsis
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
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| 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). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2026
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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 50% |
| 2. Examination | 50% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web 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.
Source: Student evaluations
The unit is very content heavy, understandably so. Perhaps a 'nudge' to students to 'start content early' as it is easy to fall behind. The study guides are very wordy; some of these could be slimmed down to give the main idea of the concepts. The individual feedback (given on TEAMS) for the IRACs each week is highly valuable and constructive. This supports students with their structure/ formatting of their IRACs, use of AGLC4, and the ability to apply the feedback in student's written mid-term assessment. The answer guides for each week's IRACs are really useful in aiding the construction of notes for the final exam. They are very clearly set out, the content which is revised, and discussions which are added from the workshop. The weekly workshop is engaging.
Students find the unit quite challenging given the volume and breadth of content. The content is largely unavoidable given the Legal Profession Admission Board requirements for the unit. However, more emphasis was provided this term in alerting students to the need to start early and devote sufficient study time each week to this unit. The study guides and videos are being redeveloped for 2026. The Teams feedback exercise and answer guides will be retained.
Multiple unit recordings on the same topic were consolidated into one recording
Source: Student evaluations
I really enjoyed my tutor's teaching style. She was engaging and warm in her delivery of the weekly sessions and also helpful, as she provided the weekly tutorial answer guides which assist to cement the weekly sessions. Her knowledge of the subject was exceptional in my opinion.
Emphasis on student connection and pastoral care retained as it is particularly important in content-heavy first year units; answer guides retained.
Answer guides used to assist students
Source: Unit coordinator reflection
Consolidate multiple recordings for each topic into one accessible recording
Consolidate multiple recordings for each topic into one accessible recording
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
The unit coordinator 'went into extreme depth in every single session, his guidance has significantly improved my confidence in the application of the IRAC method. For that reason, I am sincerely greatful for all of [his] contributions'.
Retain emphasis on IRAC
In Progress
Source: Unit coordinator reflection
Many students did not appear to make use of unit materials, including the consolidated recordings
Moving forward one strategy may be to contact the Academic Learning Centre to provide students in first class guidance on note taking. Students should be reminded of the importance of accessing unit materials.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- 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.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Examination | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | |||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | ||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |