成人大片

Name: Dr Mark Giancaspro
Location: Room 3.04, Ligertwood Building
Telephone: (08) 8313 0879 (work)
Email: mark.giancaspro@adelaide.edu.au
Consultations: Appointments can be made by email or telephone.

Lecturer

Name: Professor Andrew Stewart
Location: Room 2.24, Ligertwood Building
Telephone: (08) 8313 4445 (work)
Email: andrew.stewart@adelaide.edu.au
Consultations: Appointments can be made by email or telephone.

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

1. Analyse and apply in a principled manner the foundational and advanced principles of contract law. Undertake legal research at an intermediate to advanced level, and evaluate and apply a range of legal sources to resolve complex contract problems;
2. Structure and sustain well-structured and persuasive written arguments for a legal audience. Communicate effectively individually and as part of a team;
3. Interact with peers in an ethical manner, appropriate to an academic environment. Exercise professional judgement in completion of in-class activities and assessments;
4. Reflect on the different approaches taken in other countries with respect to contract issues and engage in informed debate as to the efficacy of the current state of Australian contract law;
5. Analyse and critically evaluate the purpose and effect of Australian contract law;
6. Reflect on the social and practical context in which Australian contract law operates.

The prescribed textbook for this course is Andrew Stewart, Warren Swain and Karen Fairweather, Contract Law: Principles and Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019). The textbook will be supplemented with additional readings, which will be provided on MyUni.

A series of recommended readings and resources may be provided for each learning week. These will be outlined in MyUni. Below are some other texts that students might wish to use for reference, in addition to the prescribed text:

• Mark Giancaspro and Colette Langos, Contract Law: Principles and Practice (LexisNexis, 2022).

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

• Andrew Robertson and Jeannie Paterson, Principles of Contract Law (Thomson Reuters, 6^th ed, 2020).

• May Feong Cheong, Australian Contract Law: Principles and Cases (Thomson Reuters, 2020).

• Stephen Graw, An Introduction to the Law of Contract (Thomson Reuters, 10^th ed, 2020).

• Lindy Willmott et al, Contract Law (Oxford, 5^th ed, 2018).

• Philip Clarke and Julie Clarke, Contract Law (Oxford, 3^rd ed, 2016).

• N C Seddon and R A Bigwood, Cheshire & Fifoot Law of Contract (LexisNexis, 11^th Australian ed, 2017).

The MyUni course page for this course can be accessed at . MyUni will be used for communication, including the posting of announcements. Besides this Course Outline, students can also use MyUni to access copies of the PowerPoint slides used in lectures, recordings of lectures, assessment tasks, and other course materials. Students are expected to check MyUni regularly to keep up to date with these materials and additional learning resources throughout the course.

Students in this course are expected to attend all classes throughout the semester. The lectures will offer an overview of the topics covered in the course, according to the Learning Activities Summary. There will be some opportunities for students to ask questions on the issues covered and engage in the discussion throughout the lectures. Classes will also involve a combination of activities which may include small group discussions and problem-solving exercises, class discussions and reflections, use of media, and more.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. In addition to the time spent attending the classes, there is a requirement that students prepare for the same. To actively and productively participate, students will have to do reading and preparation. The assigned readings and lecture slides provide a context for the material covered in classes.

LAW 3531 Contract Law: Selected Issues

Week	Dates	Topic
1	July 25-29	Pre-contractual disclosure
2	Aug 1-5	Good faith and fair dealing
3	Aug 8-12	Renegotiation
4	Aug 15-19	Comic contracting
5	Aug 22-26	Implying new terms and the regulatory role of the courts
6	Aug 29-Sept 2	Unconscionability and financial transactions
7	Sept 5-9	Interpretation of contracts
8	Sept 12-16	Autonomous smart contracts and the blockchain
BREAK	Sept 19-23	NO CLASSES
BREAK	Sept 25-29	NO CLASSES
9	Oct 3-7*	Illegality and public policy
10	Oct 10-14	The rule against penalties
11	Oct 17-21	Fairness and standard form contracts
12	Oct 24-28	Internationalisation and the future of contract law
SWOT	Oct 31-Nov 4	NO CLASSES

*Note: Monday 3 October is a public holiday. There will be no classes on any public holidays.

There are no course-specific requirements, apart from those listed below under Assessment.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcome
Online Quizzes (2)	Individual	Weeks 8 and 12	10% (5% each)	20 questions each	No	1, 4
Assignment	Individual	Friday, Week 4	25%	2000 words	Yes	1, 2, 3, 4
Research Essay	Individual	Friday, first week of exam period	65% or 90%	5000 words	No	1, 2, 4, 5, 6

Each piece of assessment is compulsory. The assignment will be redeemable by the research essay for a mark of at least 40%.

1. TWO ONLINE QUIZZES (5% each, totalling 10%)

Release Date: The online quizzes will be released in Weeks 8 and 12.

Due Date: The online quizzes will be made available via MyUni. Students will have a total of 48 hours from release time to complete the quizzes.

Details: This exercise will require students to complete two quizzes throughout semester, each weighted at 5%. The first quiz will assess content from Weeks 3-7. The second quiz will assess content from Weeks 8-11. Each quiz will have 20 questions.

Word Limit: N/A.

2. ASSIGNMENT (25%)

Release Date: The assignment will be released at 2:00pm on the Friday of Week 3.

Due Date: The assignment must be submitted by 2:00pm on the Friday of Week 4 via Turnitin.

Details: This exercise will require students to answer one or more problem questions raising issues covered in Weeks 1-3. Further instructions will be contained in the task sheet. The assignment will be redeemable by the research essay for a mark of at least 40%.

Word Limit: 2000 words.

 
3. RESEARCH ESSAY (65% or 90%)

Release Date: The research essay will be released at 9:00am on the Friday of Week 12.

Due Date: The research essay must be submitted by 2:00pm on the Friday of the first week in the exam period via Turnitin.

Details: This exercise will require students to select one of series of provided essay questions pertaining to various topics explored throughout the course. Further instructions will be contained in the task sheet.

Word Limit: 5000 words.

1. Retaining copies of work: Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
2. Turnitin submission: The short problem and assignment papers must be submitted via 'TurnitIn' on MyUni. All assessments will be submitted and monitored through text or code comparative software (e.g. Turnitin) where possible. Details for electronic submission through Turnitin will be provided with the task instructions. By submitting your papers you are agreeing:
1. That all material in the assessment is your own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others;
2. That you have read the  and the University's ; and
3. To give permission for your assessment work to be reproduced and submitted to other academic staff for the purposes of assessment and to be copied, submitted and retained in a form suitable for electronic checking of plagiarism.
3. Late Submission: When an assignment is submitted after the due date, without an extension, 5% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every 24 hours or part thereof that it is late, including each day on a weekend and public holidays. For example, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is one hour late, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 25 hours late, etc. For take-home examinations, 10% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every hour or part thereof that it is late.
4. Word Length: 5% of the total mark possible for a written assessment will be deducted for every 100 words (or part thereof) by which it exceeds a stipulated word limit. For example, a 5,000 word essay graded at 63% will have 5% deducted if it is between 5,001 and 5,100 words long for a final mark of 58%. If the essay is between 5,101 and 5,200 words long, 10% will be deducted for a final mark of 53%. Word limits include all words in the text, in headings, in quotations, and all substantive discussion in footnotes, but exclude citations in footnotes. Any separate cover page, table of contents, bibliography or list of sources is excluded from the word limit. If the word limit is misstated, this may be regarded as academic dishonesty.
5. Extensions: Requests for extensions must be made using the appropriate 'Assessment Task Extension' online form available on the Law School's intranet and hyperlinked here: . Extensions will be granted only for limited medical, compassionate or extenuating circumstances in accordance with University Policy.
6. Style of written work: All written work in the Law school is required to comply with the most recent edition of the approved Law School style guide, the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.
7. Turnaround time: All written works for this course will be returned to students within 3 weeks of the submission date. Individual feedback will be provided on each paper.

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;
• automatic double-marking of all interim assessment receiving a fail grade, and of final assessments where a student’s overall result is a fail grade;
• 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 provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the 成人大片.

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 , 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 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.