Dr Solene Rowan NAB 7.26 and Dr Charles Webb NAB 6.26

This course is available on the Executive LLM. This course is not available as an outside option.

Undergraduate contract and tort law

The objective of the course is to provide students with a detailed understanding of remedies in a commercial context. The reading addresses both case law and academic commentary. Here is an indicative list of the issues that will be considered on the course:

1. The aims of commercial remedies: What interests and other policies may be served by the law when remedying commercial disputes?

2. The function of contract damages: How do the courts assess damages for breaches of contract?  Should the courts do more to protect the claimant’s interest in performance?  What limits are placed on the recovery or measure of damages?

3. Punishment: Is punishment of a defaulting defendant ever a legitimate aim in commercial remedies?  Should punitive damages be given a greater role in English commercial law?

4. Agreed remedies: To what extent are commercial parties free to fix the remedies available to them in the event of breach?  Does freedom of contract extend to the parties’ secondary obligations?

5. Unjust enrichment: What is the law of unjust enrichment?  What is its relationship to the law of contract?  What can commercial parties recover under the law of unjust enrichment?

6. Comparative law: How do other jurisdictions deal with these questions?  What might the common law learn from civil law systems? 

24 hours

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course. Formative assessment opportunities will be provided (essay or problem questions)

Rowan, Remedies for Breach of Contract: A Comparative Analysis of the Protection of Performance (OUP 2012)

Burrows, Remedies for Torts and Breach of Contract (3rd edn OUP 2004)

Campbell, Halson, Harris, Remedies in tort and Contract (2nd edn CUP 2002)

Andrews, Clarke, Tettenborn and Virgo, Contractual Duties: Performance, Breach, Termination and Remedies (Sweet & Maxwell 2012)

Treitel, The Law of Contract (13th ed 2011) (edition by Peel)

Chitty on Contracts (31st edn Sweet & Maxwell 2012)

Either a take-home examination or 8,000 word assessed essay (100%).