Contracts

📜 Law of Contracts — Formation, Obligation, and Enforcement of Agreements

🧭 Course Overview

This class provides a foundational exploration of the Law of Contracts, the body of doctrine governing the creation, interpretation, and enforcement of legally binding agreements. Building upon centuries of common-law evolution, the course examines how voluntary promises become enforceable obligations — and how failure of performance, mistake, or impossibility affects their validity.

Drawing from key judicial precedents, the course offers a detailed study of contract formation, consideration, conditions, breach, and remedies. Students will learn how courts balance freedom of contract with public policy limitations, and how equity interacts with law in enforcing or rescinding obligations.

🎓 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Define and explain the elements of a valid contract, including offer, acceptance, consideration, and mutual assent.
2. Distinguish between types of contracts, such as express, implied, unilateral, bilateral, and quasi-contractual obligations.
3. Apply rules of interpretation, including the parol evidence rule, intent of parties, and construction against the drafter.
4. Evaluate issues of validity, such as capacity, legality, mistake, duress, fraud, and unconscionability.
5. Analyze remedies for breach, including damages, restitution, rescission, and specific performance.
6. Interpret the relationship between contract law and equity, including doctrines of estoppel and waiver.

🧩 Topics Covered

• Nature and classification of contracts
• Formation and essential elements
• Consideration and mutual assent
• Interpretation and performance
• Breach and discharge of obligations
• Equitable and legal remedies
• Defenses to enforcement

📚 Format & Materials

• Delivery: Lecture-based with case interpretation, and scenario analysis
• Duration: 40 Classes | Self-paced study