And here I am back with another Life Of A Law Student's Guide To... blog post! So, contract law is going to be another class where, as a law student, you will most definitely have to take in law school. This was one of my favourite classes so I'm excited to give you my guide to surviving this class!
So, contract law is the class where we learn about contracts (very self-explanatory). We learn how to read and interpret contracts, introduced to some important clauses we should always look out for as well as how contracts are formed and cancelled.
What are some things you might learn in this class? You'll start out by being taught the basics: what you need for a contract to exist and then you'll be taught about the more specific contractual issues that can arise.
So some of the topics you might cover in this class are:
- requirements of a contract (offer and acceptance, intention, consideration and certainty and completeness)
- under consideration the topic of promissory/equitable estoppel may also come up
- who can enforce a contract
- vitiating factors (duress, undue influence and unconscionable bargain)
- misrepresentation
- interpretation and construction of contracts
- cancellation of contracts
- unfair terms and exemption clauses
- damages
- mitigation of harm
Keep in mind that there are also some terms and concepts particular to contract law that may come up. These will be terms that you will have to be familiar with to properly understand the topic. Some of these terms could be consensus ad idem, void contracts and renovation.
One more point: there will be a mix of case law and statutory law in this class. So, you will need to be able to interpret and understand the cases you read as well as the pieces of legislation that deal with contract law. I have some blog posts that deals with note-taking in law school linked at the bottom of this page so be sure to check them out if you need extra help.
My advice would be to pay attention to the basics of how a contract is formed. This is really the bare minimum. If you can understand what makes a contract a contract then the other topics that are covered will make more sense and will hopefully be easier to understand as well.
The point of this class is to help us understand how contracts are created as well as some of the common issues that can arise in contract law. Now, when you think about it, contracts are used pretty much in A LOT of situations, in property law, business and commerce and even employment. So, this class is compulsory usually because even if you don't end up being a corporate lawyer, chances are in other areas of law you'll still have to deal with some type of contract.
My opinion is that contract law is reasonably easy. I spent half a year being taught the requirements of a contract, so the basics made sense to me. Legal Reasoning and Writing also prepares you for interpretation of cases and legislation so, the second part shouldn't be too difficult either.
That's it for my guide! I hope this was useful. Let me know what you think and as usual, thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day.
Here are some of my previous Life Of A Law Student blog posts, from the first season.
Things I Wish I Knew Before I Applied To Law School
How To Read Legal Cases And Take Notes
How I Take Notes In Class (Online and Handwritten)
How To Write A Legal Memorandum/Opinion
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