WEEK
1 – Introduction to the law and our legal system, introduction to contracts
Sources of American law, civil law versus criminal
law, international law, definition of a contract, the basic requirements of a
contract, types of contracts.
WEEK 2 – Offer and acceptance,
consideration
Requirements of
the offer, termination of the offer, acceptance, legal sufficiency of
consideration, adequacy of consideration, preexisting duty, past consideration,
problems concerning consideration.
WEEK 3 – Capacity, legality, voluntary
consent, mistakes and other contract defects
Minors, intoxicated persons, mentally
incompetent persons, contracts contrary to statute, contracts contrary to
public policy, the effect of illegality, mistakes, fraudulent
misrepresentation, undue influence, duress.
WEEK 4 – Written contracts, third party rights
The statute of
frauds, the parol evidence rule, assignments and delegations, third party
beneficiaries.
WEEK 5 – Contract discharge and remedies
Contract
discharge, contract remedies, sales of goods, leases of goods, sales and lease
contracts
WEEK 6 – Review and Midterm
WEEK 7 – Performance and
breach, warranties and product liability
Good faith and
commercial reasonableness, obligations of the seller or lessor, obligations of
the buyer or lessee, anticipatory repudiation, remedies of seller or lessor,
remedies of buyer or lessee, statute of limitations, warranties, product
liability.
WEEK 8 – Business organizations: sole
proprietorships, partnerships and limited liability companies
Advantages and disadvantages
of each form of business, formation, rights, duties, termination.
WEEK 9 – Formation and
termination of a corporation
Classification of corporations, corporate
formation, corporate powers, corporate financing
WEEK 10 - Management and ownership
of a corporation
Corporate
management: directors and officers; corporate ownership: shareholders.
WEEK 11 – Secured transactions
The terminology
of secured transactions, creating a security interest, perfecting a security
interest, the scope of a security interest, priorities among security
interests, rights and duties of debtor and creditor, default.
WEEK 12 –
Bankruptcy (the extent to which we can cover this material will
depend on the number of students in the class and the number of research paper
presentations)
The bankruptcy
code, Chapter 7 liquidation, Chapter 11 reorganizations, Chapter 13
adjustments.
WEEKS 13 and 14– class presentations of research
papers and review
Final exam