LAW2101: Contract A

20% Optional written assignment and 80% Exam,

Overall, Contract A has been okay. Being most law students' first proper law unit, it's a bit overwhelming and you'll feel pretty lost for a while towards the beginning. The content itself was mostly quite interesting, although there were weeks where it was extremely dull. This unit covers the following topics:

• Elements of a contract: Agreement (Offer and Acceptance of contract), Consideration, Intention to Create Legal Relations, Certainty
• Formalities of contract formation
• Capacity to enter into a contract
• Contract terms: Express terms and Implied terms
• Estoppel
• Privity
• Consumer contracts (Unfair Contract Terms and Consumer Guarantees as per Australian Consumer Law)

I can't really 'recommend' this unit since it's compulsory, but thought I'd review it anyway because I know I was definitely looking for subject reviews on this unit when I started uni. So yes, regardless of whether you like it or not, you kinda have to suck it up because it's one of the 'Priestley 11' law units (i.e. it's compulsory so you can't escape it!). Also, there's a second part that you do in Semester 2 (Contract B), for which this is a prerequisite so make sure you pass!

Lectures
DEFINITELY do attend lectures. At times, contracts gets kind of dry but trust me, it's so much more beneficial that you don't turn lazy and just force yourself to attend, because your future self in week 12 + SWOTVAC will really, really thank you (I say this from experience). You could listen to them online but you're probably going to get lazy. Just make your life easier and attend them.

Also, the lectures really come in handy in helping you understand the cases and how they reflect legal principles because this can be difficult at time, so don't miss your lectures!!

It doesn't really matter who your lecturer is, although it IS important that you attend the lectures for YOUR stream, because you need to know what YOUR lecturer wants. I remember stressing because I really wanted to ensure I had the chief examiner, but it honestly doesn't matter. My lecturer, Paneth, was really helpful and she provided a lot of information for us. She'd go through revision questions at the end of each topic and this was SO useful; something you won't get from trying to self-learn the slides at home.

Tutes
Tutes aren't compulsory so obviously not a lot of people attended. I only attended a few myself and I really regretted it because the tutes were pretty much going through different questions that covered each topic, with the last week's tute being a run-through of a past exam. The tutors are very knowledgeable as well and provide a lot of handy tips so even though you don't have to, I'd recommend that you do go out of your way to attend. It'll be really helpful in the end, because you'll find that you know what you're doing and you've already applied your knowledge through problem questions. Not to mention you can ask for feedback on questions as well.

ExamThe exam is out of 100 and goes for 2 hours, plus 30 minutes noting/highlighting at the beginning. Honestly, it's like a race. In order to satisfy the marks you're pretty much writing as fast as you can until the exam finishes. What you should really practice is issue-spotting, which is why the tutes are useful, because you get practice at this and feedback as well. This was the first time they did it for Contract A, but they also had a 20-mark case question. Here, you're pretty much regurgitating the facts, issues and judgments of a select case, chosen out of 100+ odd cases (which, yes, you're expected to have studied/memorized, along with their related principles).

Yes, 2011-13 plus a few more older ones

3.5 out of 5

Yes, chief examiner's lectures are recorded with screen capture.

2 x 1.5 hour lectures per week, 1 hour tutorial per week from week 6-11 (attendance isn't compulsory)

Semester 1, 2014