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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2022/2023

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Contract Law in Europe (LAWS11462)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course is a comparative contract law course. Its main focus is fundamental concepts of the law of contract, which arise in all systems. The course compares national systems of contract law, principally Scots, English, French and German law. The course also considers some of the harmonisation initiatives that have taken place in Europe over the last decade, principally the Draft Common Frame of Reference (Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law).
Course description Provisional Seminar Outline:

Week 1: Introducing the concept of a contract and the harmonisation initiatives
Week 2: Good faith
Week 3: Pre-contractual liability
Week 4: Formation
Week 5: Interpretation
Week 6: Third Party Rights
Week 7: Breach and Termination
Week 8: Enforcing performance
Week 9: Damages
Week 10: So What is a Contract?
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  26
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Formative Assessment:
(* Component marks to do not contribute to student's overall course mark/grade. The aim of formative assessments is to monitor student learning).

The formative exercise will be a problem-solving exercise. It will, in effect, be a simplified and shorter version of the summative essay. Students will be asked to answer a short legal problem, producing an essay of 1,000 words. The problem will combine two legal issues which have already been covered in the early seminars of the course. Students will be able to choose the European legal system which is applied to the problem, or choose to solve the problem by reference to one of the European harmonisation measures such as the Draft Common Frame of Reference.

Summative Assessment:
(* Component marks contribute to student's overall course mark/grade. The aim of summative assessments is to assess student learning).

1) 5000 Word Essay (100%)
Feedback Feedback on the formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The course organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.

Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.

Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the defining characteristics of contract law in particular national legal systems;
  2. Engage in informed discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of harmonisation of contract law within Europe;
  3. Understand their own systems of contract law through discussion and comparison with students from other legal systems;
  4. Identify relevant areas of law and apply legal rules to problem-based questions.
Reading List
Please contact Course Organiser for further information on an indicate bibliography.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Please contact Course Organiser for further information.
KeywordsLaw,LLM,Commercial Law,Contract Law,Europe,Level 11,Postgraduate
Contacts
Course organiserMiss Lorna Richardson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5563
Email: Lorna.Richardson@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Bethan Walters
Tel: (0131 6)50 2386
Email: bethan.walters@ed.ac.uk
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