LL213      Half Unit
Commercial Law

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

This course builds on LL142 Contract Law. Students are advised to take it after or concurrently with LL276 Property.

This half-unit course covers fundamental ideas in the private law of business-to-business transactions. Building on LL142 Contract Law, the course explores how contract law principles apply to specific types of business deal. It also complements LL276 Property’s examination of property and trusts by addressing personal property law issues in commercial contexts. Topics may include sale of goods, banking, credit and security, agency, and assignment. Students will learn to apply their knowledge to new situations and to evaluate existing laws and proposed reforms.

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

At least one formative essay.

Core reading consists mainly of judicial decisions and statutory provisions. Useful secondary sources include:

• Goode and McKendrick on Commercial Law (6th edition, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2020)
• William Day, Commercial Law (Hart Publishing, 2023)
• Rachel Leow, ‘Understanding Agency: A Proxy Power Definition’ (2019) 79 Cambridge Law Journal 99
• Andrew Dyson (Summers) and Adam Kramer, ‘There is No “Breach Date Rule”: Mitigation, Difference in Value and Date of Assessment’ (2014) 130 Law Quarterly Review 259
• Michael Bridge, ‘Risk, Property, and Bulk Goods in International Sales’ [2019] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 57
• Paul MacMahon, ‘Rethinking Assignability’ (2020) 79 Cambridge Law Journal 288
• Sarah Paterson, ‘The Insolvency Law Consequences of the Abolition of the Fixed/Floating Charge Distinction’ Secured Transactions Law Reform Project Discussion Paper (2016)
• Sir Ross Cranston et al, Principles of Banking Law (3rd edn, OUP, 2018)

Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period