English   Danish

2025/2026  KAN-CJURV1042U  Common Law and Contracts

English Title
Common Law and Contracts

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 50
Study board
Study Board of Governance, Law, Accounting & Management Analytics
Course coordinator
  • Pedro Telles - Department of Business Humanities and Law (BHL)
Main academic disciplines
  • Business Law
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 13-02-2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
The course will contribute for the general and specific knowledge of English common law and contracts, e.i. introduction to common law, operation of the common law, and introduction to contract law under the common law regime. The student must be able to:
  • analyse primary sources of law and other materials relevant to the common law of contracts, including developing case analysis skills
  • understand origin, development and operation of common law of contract, as well as its ambiguity
  • develop knowledge of the relationship of common and civil law, understanding how to create value from these global connections
  • collaborate constructively to develop case analysis
Course prerequisites
BSC in business law and economics or bachelor in law
Examination
Common Law and Contracts:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 5 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration 48 hours to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
In case the resit student numbers are low, making the resit an oral exam is a possibility.
Description of the exam procedure

The exam will be composed by a single question composed of multiple parts. Students will be given a case to comment based on the content covered throughout the semester.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course will cover English contract law, in particular the common law element of it, that is the development of the law via a system of judicial precedent. In addition it will take a global outlook by comparing it at stages with civil law systems, including an EU perspective while touching also more modern contract law issues such as smart contracts. 

 

This course is structured as a mixture of traditional lectures and case discussions with the latter requiring a high degree of student involvement. Every week, at least one case will be discussed which requires the students to prepare appropriately. The discussion and analysis will follow with adaptations the structure of the exam.

 

It is important to understand that coming prepared to class and willing to discuss materials and cases is fundamental for the delivery of the course. 
Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Classic and basic theory
Research-like activities
  • Analysis
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
Description of the teaching methods
The course teaching methods will be composed of a weekly in person session. This session will be composed of a mixture of lecture and practical elements. The practical elements will require the students to:

i) do the required readings and questions that are set based on the content covered
ii) prepare the case or cases that will be discussed in that week
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback in this course will be provided via two mechanisms.

First, every week a set of readings and questions will be released to students. This will be covered in the following session with group discussion between students before feeding back to the main session.

Second, each weekly session will include group presentations about specific court cases by the students working in groups.


Student workload
participation in classes 33 hours
preparations for classes 81 hours
home assignments during the quarter 44 hours
exam assignment 48 hours
Expected literature

The core textbook will be TT Arvind, Contract Law (3rd edition or subsequent if available) (Oxford University Press) and additional materials will be linked to on Canvas or included in the course syllabus. 

 

For example, in 2024 these included:

 

- Koffman, Macdonald & Atkins' Law of Contract (10th edition, Oxford)

- Lucy Jones, Introduction to business law (5th edition, Oxford);

- Catherine Elliot, Contract Law (9th or 10th edition, Pearson);

- Ewan McKendrick (13th edition, Red Glob Press);

 
Last updated on 13-02-2025