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This module introduces students to the key doctrines of the law of contract of England and Wales. It is a key module for any undergraduate law course and provides the intellectual building blocks for others areas of law, notably commercial law. The central feature of contract law is exchange. In addition to its central role in the legal learning process, this area of law is of great practical importance since it touches everybody’s lives, directly or indirectly. Contract law regulates both simple transactions, such as consumer purchases (groceries) and services (mobile phones), as well as complex contracts, such as those created to sustain international project financing.

Moreover, the English law of contract is of global, rather than purely national importance. It is commonly selected by parties to international commercial contracts as the governing law. One reason for this is that it is widely regarded as undogmatic, as sympathetic to commercial bargains, as facilitative rather than prescriptive. The principle of freedom of contract is taken at least as seriously in this country as in any other in the world. In addition, English courts and arbitrators have a reputation for informed commercial common sense, so that numerous overseas contracts are litigated in this country and made subject to the provisions of English law despite the absence of any connection of the parties and of the contract to England.

The module will introduce students to the key doctrines of English contract law that cover the life cycle of a contract. It will focus on the rules and case law dealing with how contracts are formed; the interpretation of contracts; how unfair terms are regulated by the courts; the vitiation of contracts; the effect of frustrating events; breach of contract and the remedies for breach. In doing so, the course draws attention to some of the key doctrinal and conceptual tensions in the law.

The aims of this module are to:
1. Ìý Ìý Ìýsituate contract law as a branch of the law of obligations in private law;
2. Ìý Ìý Ìýidentify the purposes that contract law serves in society;
3. Ìý Ìý Ìýshow how contracts are formed and interpreted, circumstances in which they might be vitiated, and their consequences for the parties;
4. Ìý Ìý Ìýdemonstrate how the common law works and develops, through both judicial reasoning in case law and legislation;
5. Ìý Ìý Ìýuncover the principles and values that influence and underpin contract law rules;
6. Ìý Ìý Ìýdevelop participants’ skills of legal reasoning and analysis;
7. Ìý Ìý Ìýencourage students to question and critically analyse the rules of English contract law, including from critical and comparative perspectives; and,
8. Ìý Ìý Ìýequip law students with the skills and techniques needed to answer problem questions and essay questions about contract law.

Reading lists and other materials will be provided for students registered on the module via online Moodle information pages.