This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

The subject considers key legal concepts employed in commercial law and the practical role they play in solving commercial disputes. Our focus is on key structures and relationships used in commercial transactions, and the question of how such structures and relationships may affect third parties. As commercial parties often need to decide what legal structure to adopt in a relationship, we consider and compare the differing legal consequences of different types of commercial transactions, looking at their effect on both contracting parties and third parties. In doing so, we look at how key conceptual building blocks of commercial law (such as agency; trusts; sale; assignment; and security) are applied in practice. Given the international nature of much commercial law, and the important ongoing influence of shared common law concepts, we consider both Australian and English materials.

The syllabus remains flexible to ensure that our focus is on recent developments and topics of current interest. In 2020, the core topics studied will be: (i) agency: its internal and external aspects; (ii) trusts and their use in commercial transactions; (iii) sale and the effect of passing property; (iv) assignment of contractual rights and the practical effects of non-assignment clauses; (v) the operation of good faith in commercial relationships. Broader themes to be discussed include: (i) the effects of different transactions on third parties, including the limits placed by the law on the parties’ freedom to determine such effects; (ii) the interaction of common law, equity and statute in commercial contexts.

Students taking this subject will be assumed to have a basic knowledge of the principles of contract law, property law, equity and trusts, as applied in Australia or other legal jurisdictions.

Principal topics:

• Agency: internal and external aspects
• The use of trusts in commercial relationships
• Sale and the effect of passing property
• The transfer and protection of intangible commercial rights, including assignment of choses in action
• The role of good faith in commercial transactions

Australia has a detailed and comprehensive consumer protection regime dealing with the supply of goods and services, including financial products, to consumers. Primary legislation is the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), found in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010(Cth); equivalent provisions in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (ASIC Act) applying to financial services and products; and, for consumer credit, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (NCCP Act). This subject provides students with a detailed knowledge of key features of the consumer protection regimes underlying the supply of goods, services and credit to consumers, along with the common law principles and policy imperatives that underpin these regimes. The lecturers include one of the Law School's private lawyers with specialist expertise in consumer law, and a leading practitioner in this field of law.

Principal topics include:

• Purposes of consumer protection law
• The regulatory toolkit
• Common law doctrines underlying the legislative regime
• Enforcement and remedial strategies.
• Key consumer protection regimes under the ACL, ASIC Act and NCCP Act:
  • Misleading or deceptive conduct
  • Unconscionable conduct
  • Interest rate caps and responsible lending
  • The specific regulation of small amount loans
  • Unfair contract terms.
  • Consumer guarantees and implied terms

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

Equitable doctrines and remedies lie at the heart of commercial conduct, transactions and private law litigation. They provide unique standards of conduct that restrict and guide commercial dealings and a raft of powerful personal and proprietary remedies that dictate defendant liability when transactions fail. Over recent years their influence has been seen not only in important judicial decisions affecting commercial dealings, but in the raft of legislation that now builds on those equitable foundations. This subject considers some of the more pressing points of convergence between equitable doctrine and commercial practice, and examines their ongoing relationship with key statutory counterparts. In doing so, the subject is tightly structured to ensure that students are exposed to cutting-edge legal theory concerning court-led equitable developments and to the ramifications of those developments at the coal-face of commercial practice and dealings.

This subject will be relevant to transaction lawyers involved in planning, initiating and drafting contracts, for corporate lawyers and regulators involved in consumer and banking law and for commercial litigators. The lecturers are internationally recognised experts in the commercial applications of equitable doctrines and remedies. They are also exceptional teachers, evidenced by the consistently outstanding results in the student experience surveys for this subject.

Principal topics include:

• The role of equity in commercial transactions
• The nature of the fiduciary obligations, including the avoidance and ‘management’ of fiduciary conflicts
• Undue influence, mistakes and the enforcement of domestic guarantees in banking contexts
• Quistclose trusts
• The role of estoppel in commercial transactions
• Equitable remedies for breach of obligation, with special reference to gain-based awards and constructive and resulting trusts.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

The law of contract interpretation is one of the most practically important areas of commercial law. In recent years, interpretation disputes have come to dominate contract litigation. Because views can differ as to basic questions — such as whether particular words have a plain meaning, and what 'commercial sense’ dictates in a given situation — the outcomes of these cases can be difficult to predict. This subject will study the core principles of contract interpretation in Australian and English law. It will also examine the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention. Current issues and controversies will be considered. The common law approach to contract interpretation will be compared with those adopted in important international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The lecturer is a former commercial practitioner who has taught contract law for many years and has published widely on relevant topics.

This subject will examine the principles governing the interpretation of commercial contracts, and the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention.

Principal topics include:

• Contemporary approaches to interpretation
• The availability and relevance of extrinsic evidence
• Comparison between the common law principles of contract interpretation and those of international instruments such as the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts
• The role of contractual purposes
• The role of commercial commonsense
• Plain meaning, absurdity and unreasonableness
• The interpretation of limitation of liability clauses
• Implied terms
• The equitable remedy of rectification
• Estoppel by convention

Contract is central to the legal regulation of most commercial and economic activity, and underlies many specialist areas of legal practice. As market costs and values move, many contracts become increasingly valuable to one party and burdensome to the other. One party’s ability to terminate, or to successfully resist the termination of, a commercial contract is frequently a matter of considerable financial importance. The complex interaction between common law termination rights and rights to terminate expressly conferred by clauses in the contract in question is seldom properly understood, as illustrated by many of the cases from which this subject is taught.

This subject is taught from selected cases rather than textbooks. Principal topics include:

• Breach of conditions, including what makes a promissory term a strict condition
• Non-fulfilment of conditions precedent, and associated promissory obligations
• Breaches of intermediate terms, and what makes them sufficiently serious to justify termination
• Repudiation in its different forms
• Breach of time obligations, and the use and consequences of Notices to Perform/Complete
• Express termination clauses—the different principles concerning their operation, and ‘compare and contrast’ the principles concerning termination at common law
• Possible limits on an aggrieved party’s right to terminate through:
  • Election/affirmation
  • Estoppel
  • Breach or an absence of readiness, willingness and ability to perform on his/her own part
  • Relief against forfeiture
• Remedies accompanying effective or attempted terminations, including:
  • Principles of quantifying expectation damages at common law
  • Limited rights to damages on termination pursuant to an express clause
  • Contractual rights to remuneration accrued due prior to the termination
  • Exceptional limitations on the recoverability of contractual remuneration.

This subject introduces students to the common law method, to provide an understanding of the development of the modern law of contract as well as the fundamental principles of the subject, and to develop advanced analytical and critical skills that will help them to succeed in their Masters degree.

The lecturer has taught contract law for many years and has published extensively in the area.

Topics to be covered, principally through a series of case studies, include:

• The evolution of the modern law of contract; the 'objective' approach; an overview of some current issues
• Principles of contract formation: agreement; intention to be bound; consideration; certainty
• The doctrine of privity of contract
• Terms of the contract: express and implied terms; written contracts and their interpretation
• Vitiating elements: misrepresentation; mistake; duress; undue influence; unconscionable bargain
• Discharge of contracts: breach; frustration
• Remedies for breach of contract: damages; specific performance

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

Negligence is one of the most heavily litigated causes of action in common law jurisdictions. It is of enormous practical importance in a very wide range of fact situations. It is also a dynamic area of law: the relevant principles are constantly being applied to new fact situations, and the courts are regularly forced to grapple with difficult questions about the scope of negligence liability. This subject examines key current issues and controversies in the law of negligence in the light of theoretical and comparative perspectives. The lecturers have both published widely on private law topics, including a range of issues in the law of negligence.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the law of negligence, including theoretical and historical perspectives and the place of negligence in tort law and private law
• The duty of care requirement in general terms, including the distinction between duty in law and duty in fact, the approach to the duty question in novel situations and the role of public policy in duty decisions
• Liability for psychiatric injury
• Liability for pure economic loss
• Liability for omissions
• Liability of public authorities
• Current issues in the standard of care and its application, with particular reference to professional negligence cases
• The requirement of damage
• Factual causation, including recovery for loss of a chance
• Scope of liability (legal causation and remoteness)
• Defences (both common law and statutory).

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject provides an introduction to the global law relating to international commercial contracts. A major focus will be on contracts of sales, as codified by the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). However, some issues of the general law of contract will also be covered in detail (eg formation, interpretation, third party rights, the duty of good faith and fair dealing). The treatment of some of these topics will be based on an examination of the 2016 UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). The approach is comparative. Examples will be drawn from the decisions of national courts as well as arbitral awards.

Principal topics include:

• Global commercial contracts
• Applicability and application of the CISG and the PICC
• Interpretation and supplementation of the CISG and the PICC
• Contract formation
• Interpretation of international commercial contracts
• Third party rights
• Obligations of sellers and buyers
• Contractual remedies
• Good faith and fair dealing
• Transnational commercial dispute resolution.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This new subject will consider cutting-edge issues in the law governing the liability of public authorities. Government liability is a field of great practical significance for government and those who interact with government. It also raises difficult issues of theory, lying at the border of public law and private law, and complex policy questions, such as the balance to be struck between interests in individual redress and public interests including the preservation of public finances. The subject will focus on the law of Australia and common law jurisdictions.

The subject will consider significant issues that arise across the major fields of liability. Within the law of torts the course will consider: public authority negligence, including liability for regulatory failure, and of child protection agencies, police and emergency services; misfeasance in public office; malicious prosecution; private and public nuisance; trespassory torts; statutory immunities or defences that provide special protection to public authorities; particular difficulties relating to governments direct and vicarious liability; and issues in the law of damages, including the novel subject of vindicatory damages. Within the law of unjust enrichment, the subject will consider the different grounds on which public authorities can be stripped of unjust gains, and particular issues associated with claims for the return of taxes unlawfully demanded. In the law of contract, the course will consider various special rules that may apply to government contracts including immunities, and will consider the consequences where contracts are entered into without authority. The subject will also consider the history of law reform proposals that seek to make government compensate for ultra vires administrative action, and the role of ex gratia payments.

Principal topics include:

• The law of torts
  • Public authority negligence, including liability for regulatory failure, and of child protection agencies, police and emergency services
  • Misfeasance in public office
  • Malicious prosecution
  • Private and public nuisance
  • Trespassory torts including false imprisonment
  • Vicarious liability of public authorities
  • Statutory immunities and special defences for public authorities
  • Damages awards against public authorities including vindicatory damages
• The law of unjust enrichment
  • Grounds for seeking restitution against public authorities
  • Recovery of unlawfully demanded taxes
  • Special defences for public authorities
• The law of contract
  • Special rules regulating government contracts
  • Consequences of ultra vires contracts
• Compensation beyond private law
  • Law reform proposals for compensation for ultra vires administrative action
  • Ex gratia payments.

International Legal Internship allows students to gain credit for undertaking advanced legal research and analysis on an approved international internship of at least eight weeks of full-time work in an approved international institution or organisation. This subject is focused on providing students with an opportunity to engage with legal and policy issues in contemporary society through work experience and further develop oral and written communication skills. Students are required to secure and fund their internships personally.

Students are encouraged to discuss their internship proposals with the subject coordinators. Students who successfully enrol in International Legal Internship must arrange a meeting with at least one of the subject coordinators both prior to their internship and upon completion, to develop a better understanding of research and the role of international institutions in international law and relations.

This subject provides the opportunity to explore in depth the theoretical and practical issues concerning trusts law.

Trusts law extensively underlies, facilitates, and informs private wealth management and many commercial transactions. Trusts law also has a significant international aspect: it is pervasive not only in Australia and most other common law jurisdictions (including the ‘offshore world’), but also increasingly utilised in many civil law jurisdictions. This subject investigates private and commercial aspects of trusts law from an international perspective.

The subject is roughly split into two halves. The first half addresses trusts law in the private wealth management context, where we consider (among other things) the modern discretionary trust, how trustees’ exercise of powers may be controlled, and how trusts may be used and misused and the legal responses of ‘onshore’ and ‘offshore’ jurisdictions. The second half addresses trusts law in the commercial context, where we will consider how trusts law underlies and informs (among other things) assignments, unit trusts, bonds, and intermediated holding of securities. The subject will also consider the choice of law rules for express, resulting, and constructive trusts within private international law.

Among the topics to be explored are:

• Discretionary trusts and powers
• Letters of wishes
• Sham trusts
• Purpose trusts
• Protectors
• Asset protection trusts
• Equitable assignment
• Unit trusts
• Bond trustees
• Intermediated holding of securities
• Creditor trusts
• Choice of law in private international law

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject examines the remedies commonly awarded in commercial litigation. All the major common law, equitable and statutory remedies will be covered, along with personal remedies, such as damages and proprietary remedies, such as the constructive trust. The strategic selection of remedies in commercial disputes will be considered and Australian law will be compared, where relevant, with the law of other major commercial law jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• Damages in tort (excluding personal injuries) and for breach of contract, including issues of concurrency, where both tort and contract damages are available. Expectation and reliance damages and the protection of the ‘performance interest’ in contract. The role of liquidated damages clauses, and the penalties doctrine, will be considered, as well as the principles governing the award of exemplary and nominal damages.
• Statutory damages awards, with particular reference to damages awarded under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• Equitable compensation for breach of equitable obligations, including breach of fiduciary obligation. Statutory damages under the Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (Imp) and equivalent Australian legislation
• Specific performance of contracts, with particular reference to the role of specific performance in common law and civil law jurisdictions
• Injunctions, including a study of the interests protected in injunction litigation. Interlocutory orders, including Mareva orders, will be examined
• The account of profits as a remedy for equitable wrongdoing, and debates about the availability of the account of profits as a remedy for breach of contract
• Proprietary remedies, with particular reference to the distinction between institutional and remedial constructive trusts
• A comparison of the role of the constructive trust, in commercial litigation, in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.