LEGAL 240 - Contracts

5.0 Credits
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to contract law, covering the essential elements of a valid contract. Students will explore issues such as incapacity, fraud, undue influence, and duress, as well as which contracts must be in writing under the Statute of Frauds. The course applies rules of interpretation and addresses how contractual obligations can be discharged. Students will also learn about third-party relationships, assignments, delegations, and remedies for breach under common law and the Uniform Commercial Code. Students will gain experience analyzing contract problems and drafting standard contract provisions. No prior legal training or experience is required to take this course.
Course-level Learning Objectives (CLOs)
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Identify the components of a valid contract, including the elements of a valid offer, a proper acceptance, and legally adequate considerations.
Discuss issues of lack of mutual assent, including incapacity, illegality, fraud, misrepresentation, mistake, duress, undue influence, and unconscionability.
Explain which contracts must be in writing under the Statute of Frauds, and apply the rules of interpretation and the Parol Evidence rule to construe the meaning of written contracts.
Summarize the methods for discharging contractual obligations, including impossibility, impracticability, frustration of purpose, rescission, release, novation, modification, accord and satisfaction, and performance.
Identify the different types of third party contractual relationships and differentiate between assignments and delegations.
Distinguish between the available for breach of a common law contract and those available for breach of a sale of goods contract under the Uniform Commercial Code.
Apply the substantive law of contracts and the rules of interpretation to analyze a typical contract problem and to draft a standard contract.

Course Typically Offered
Full Year