Contract Law: Perspectives and Approaches - LAW00095H

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Module summary

This module explores the different ways in which judges and academics have thought and written about contract law, through the in-depth study of key cases and academic writing. It provides an opportunity to develop both your understanding of contract law itself, and your critical thinking and analysis skills more generally.

Related modules

This module builds on the obligations components of the Foundations in Law modules.  It is therefore a prerequisite that students have taken or are in the process of taking the compulsory Foundations in Law modules for their programme of study (either the LLB or LLB (Senior Status) FL modules).

 

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

In contrast to other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, legal scholars have traditionally paid limitedattention to questions ofmethodology and approach. But the importance of methodology in law is gradually being recognised. This module uses contract law to capitalise on this trend.In it, youwill learnto identify and critically evaluate the key points of difference between some prominentmethodologies and approaches which have been adopted by contract scholars. Wewill also consider the perspective of judges and practising lawyers on contract law, and how different scholarly approaches compare with the way contract law is understood and argued in the courts. While the focus is on contract law,the analytical skills you will develop are transferrable to otherfields, and will be particularly relevant and useful if you are taking the dissertation option or considering postgraduate study.

Most of your time on this module will bespent reading,analysingand discussingkey articles and cases on contract law (including its relationship with other fields such as tort and equity). You will besupported to engage with this challenge. The pre-assigned readingfor each seminarwill be introduced in lectures, providing students with a firm grounding from which to tackle it for themselves. In seminars, we will work through questions on the material you have read have in smallgroups and whole class discussions in order to build yourunderstanding. Seminars will also guide students on how to approach the kinds of question used inthe summative assessment. Towards the end of the module students will prepare group presentations on a sample assessment question and will also have the opportunity to submit an essay plan for formative feedback.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an in-depth,conceptual and critical understanding ofkeyperspectives, methodologies and approaches in the scholarship of English contract law.
• Demonstrate a conceptual and critical understanding of the different approaches that scholars have taken to the question of what is relevant and important whenstudying contract law (ie, the nature of their object of study).
• Demonstrate a conceptual and critical understanding ofthe different ways in which scholars have understood their relationship with the courts and their role in explaining and/or shaping developments in contract law.
• Critically compare judicial perspectives on contract law with the perspectives adopted by different contract scholars or groups of contract scholars.
• Devise and sustain their own arguments on methodological issues arising in contract scholarship.
• Present their analysis and arguments confidently and effectively both in writing (for example, in an essay) and verbally (for example, in seminar discussions and group presentations).

Module content

The key approaches and methodologies in contract scholarship will be explored through the study of particular contract law topics such as those listed below. These may vary from year to year, with additional topics being addeddepending legal developments and new topicswhich emerge in the literature:

1. Contract law and the regulation of contracting.
2. The relationship between contract law and equity.
3. The relationship between contract law and tort.
4. The relationship between contract law and restitution/unjust enrichment.
5. Values incontract law.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive formative feedback from tutors and peers on their understanding and skills during seminars. There will also be an opportunity to submita 500 word essay plan for individual formative feedback.

Students will receive individual feedback on their summative assessment in line with the normal Turnaround Time.

Indicative reading

Andrew Burrows, Remedies for Torts, Breach of Contract and Equitable Wrongs (OUP 2019)

Catherine Mitchell, Vanishing Contract Law: Common Law in the Age of Contracts(CUP Law in Context 2022)

Jonathan Morgan, Contract Law Minimalism (CUP Law in Context 2013)

Philip Sales, The Common Law: Context and Method (2019) 135 Law Quarterly Review 47

AWB Simpson, The Common Law and Legal Theory in AWB Simpson (ed) Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, 2nd Series (Clarendon Press 1979)

Jane Stapleton, Three Essays on Torts (OUP 2019)