Aims

1) To acquire knowledge and understanding of the key legal principles and techniques involved in the sale of goods from a domestic and international perspective

2) To impart a critical analytical understanding of the general principles of the law of the sale of goods with emphasis upon their application at an international level

3) To develop an understanding of some of the key issues affecting contracts for the international sale of goods.

4) To acquire knowledge and understanding of the evolving dynamic of the subject

Outline Of Syllabus

The module covers the law pertaining to the international sale of goods conducted on the basis of English law and the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods 1980 (CISG). English law is commonly used to resolve international sales disputes, particularly in commodities transactions. The CISG has been adopted by over seventy countries, and has informed the laws of a number of others – for example, the Chinese Contract Law of 1999.

The module will cover a range of topics pertaining to the contract of sale, including:

Core concepts in the law of sales,

The terms of the sales contract,

The duties of the buyer and seller,

The passing of risk and title,

The effect of frustration and force majeure

The remedies of the buyer and seller in case of breach,

Dispute resolution mechanisms,

Relevant aspects of the conflict of laws, such as applicable law and jurisdiction, and the enforcement of foreign judgments.

The module will not deal with associated contracts, such as contracts of insurance, carriage and finance.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The module is taught through seminars, with the assistance of asynchronous lecture materials which will introduce students to the key concepts in the area of the international sale of goods. The seminars will be interactive, and will be centred around analysing hypothetical situations, decided cases, and topics of current debate. They will require a significant amount of advance preparation, which involves self-directed study, guided by an extensive reading list supplied at the start of term. The combination of these teaching methods has been designed to promote analytical, argumentative and critical skills which are of critical importance to working with the law in this area.

Individual drop-in sessions will be offered to students at scheduled times in order for them to pursue individual issues in greater depth, and receive feedback on their performance.

The MCQ activities will provide students with instantaneous formative feedback on their knowledge and understanding of substantive course content and allow them to assess their own progress.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Both aspects of the assessment are designed to apply students’ understanding of the curriculum to hypotherical scenarios taken from real life examples. The purpose of this is to:

A) assess students’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum;

B) assess students’ ability to accurately, clearly and consicely identify and evaluate the relevant legal principles, apply them to given sets of facts, and advise accordingly through reasoned argument based on Iegal authority;

C) Assess students’ ability to critically analyse the legal rules in line with their underlying principles and policy objectives.


In the first part of the assessment (70%), students are required to draft a set of contract terms in response to a problem scenario and provide reasons as to why they have drafted these terms in the way that they have.


In the second part of the assessment (30%), students will be required to answer a number of multiple choice questions applied to a range of problem scenarios.


Finally, MCQ-based assessment set periodically over the course of the module will provide students with instantaneous formative feedback on their knowledge and undestanding of the material covered in lectures and seminars and will allow them to track their progress.