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Contract law is something that all law students will have studied at one time during their undergraduate studies. But, whilst the focus of typical undergraduate modules (including here at UCL) are contracts of sale and services, and cases about ships or construction – all providing the foundational stepping stones for the development of classical contract law – there are other interesting stories to tell about contracts and about contract law. For example, the way that parties use contracts for distinctive, often less commercial purposes: e.g. for silencing victims of sexual harassment (non-disclosure agreements); for preventing human rights abuses, or environmental harms; for the provision of public health services or of immigration ‘removal centres’ (government contracting); for pre-nuptial or separation agreements, for surrogacy arrangements and so forth. How should contract law respond to the less orthodox ways that contracts are being deployed, if indeed it can? There are other interesting stories to tell about contracting and contract law. For example, the perhaps surprising fact that commercial parties may often choose not to use the institutions of contract law. What might this tell us about the usefulness and function of contract law? And, how to make sense of the impact from Artificial Intelligence and ‘Machine Learning’ on our transactional environment, especially in the context of consumer contracting? Does all this tell us anything about the limits of the current shape of contract law and its doctrines, or about the need for reform?

These are the sort of questions that we explore in this module. You will not find them in the typical undergraduate contract law books, but they form an important part of the practice and conceptual backdrop to contemporary contract law. Approaching the study of contract law from this perspective will enable you to engage critically with concepts such as ‘freedom of contract’ and its proper limits and tease out the distinctiveness of contract law as a private law discipline. In doing so, it will introduce you to instances in which, one could argue, the role and nature of contract law is being transformed.

It is an innovative module, covering issues of topical relevance. It will be of interest to those of you who enjoyed contract law in the first year, as well as those who have a broader conceptual interest in private law. In general, the idea of this module is to step back from the doctrine and think more conceptually about some of the key features of contract law and their relevance in the contemporary contractual environment. For this reason, although prior knowledge of contract law is a requirement for this course, detailed knowledge (recollection!) of the common law doctrines and case law will not be necessary.

At the end of the module, you will have acquired a deep understanding of the fundamental concepts, mode of legal reasoning and function(s) of contract law – from both ‘classical’ and more modern perspectives. It will certainly have broadened your thinking from the classical picture of contract law that was expounded in the first year of the LLB contract law course and equip those with academic interests in private law to explore their particular areas of interest in greater theoretical depth. An advanced study of contract law is also of huge benefit for those looking to go into commercial practice.