Contracts used to be a year-long required first-year course at the
University of Denver College of Law. This course will meet twice weekly
for 75 minutes per session.
A contract is an exchange relationship. The typical pattern is
that one person (or company) sells goods or services to another person
(or company) for money. For the most part, Contracts students
examine what happens after something goes wrong with this transaction.
Contracts is a required course because the concepts and methods are
fundamental to being able to approach law as a lawyer. In this respect,
the course is like an introductory course in a foreign language.
If you can't talk contracts, you can't talk like a lawyer.
The course emphasizes the empirical and sociological realities of both
business and the system of civil justice. Students should always
wonder whether the hype that they hear about the legal system matches
what is happening in the world outside the law school. In addition
to focusing upon the empirical realities of business, litigation, and
life, the course also considers some of the theories that explain and/or
justify the rules that are supposed to guide contract law and
litigation. Consideration of the these rules is divided into topics,
including damages, and others.
Note, however, that this is not a course that will teach you how to
practice contract law. Just learning the basic outlines of this
substantive area of law is a sufficient task for a foundational course
such as this one. As well, this is not a course in Colorado
contracts. More advanced courses and, frankly, practice are where
you will learn jurisdiction-specific information and practice-oriented
skills.
Students will find their assignments on the Web. Students will also use the
Internet for examination of some course materials and for some class
discussions and assignments.
Edited
23 November 2008
Professor of Law
University of Denver
College of Law
