Contracts X: From Trust to Promise to Contract
Welcome to ContractsX! This syllabus provides an overview of the course, a detailed course policy, and an outline of the assignments you’ll be completing over the eight-week course.
Scope of the Course
Contracts are an important and pervasive part of our daily lives, so it is a vital skill to understand the basic principles of contracts. This course starts by putting contracts into their human setting, analyzing why we form contracts and what aspects of our humanity contracts depend upon and serve. The course then moves onto the nuts and bolts of contracts—what promises do and do not form contracts, the principles of offer and acceptance, and what happens when contracts go wrong. Along the way, Professor Fried will introduce famous cases and judges, illustrating principles of contracts with some wonderful stories.
Legal Disclaimer
We would like to stress that while this course is designed to introduce the basics of contracts, it is not an intensive review of all relevant case law, and should not be perceived as legal advice in whole or in part. Further, this course does not reflect the views of Harvard University, Harvard Law School, HarvardX, or edX.
Teaching Staff
From time to time, Professor Fried and teaching staff will participate in discussion. Teaching staff will also moderate all open-ended assessments and can provide feedback. Please use the general discussion boards to introduce yourself and ask any questions about the course. If you experience a technical issue with the platform or course, please post on the discussion board or e-mail us at contractshls2x@gmail.com.
Academic Honesty and Course Conduct
You are expected to abide by edX’s standards of academic honesty and online conduct, which are laid out in the edX Terms of Service. Please pay particular attention to the following points:
Submit only your own work and do not engage in any activity that would dishonestly improve your results, or improve or hurt the results of others.
Content that defames, harasses, or threatens other students, course staff, and/or professors is strictly prohibited. This includes profane, pornographic, obscene, indecent, and unlawful content; advertising; and any intentionally inaccurate information or content that is posted with the intent to mislead others.
Expected Workload
ContractsX requires 2-3 hours per week to complete the lessons. This includes watching the video lectures and completing the course assessments.
Following the course introduction and first unit, we will release a unit’s worth of material each week on Thursday at 12 pm (EST)/ 5 pm (UTC). Each unit represents 2-3 hours of work. You can decide how quickly to progress through the material, but please note that the course closes at 12 pm (EST) on March 12. We have included a detailed release schedule and suggested assignment breakdown below.
Release Schedule
Week 1: January 7, 2016 | Introduction
Week 2: January 7, 2016 | Unit 1: 4 Principles
Week 3: January 21, 2016 | Unit 2: Empty Bag
Week 4: January 28, 2016 | Unit 3: Offer/Acceptance
Week 5: February 4, 2016 | Unit 4: Law at the Margins
Week 6: February 11, 2016 | Unit 5: Part 1a – Mistakes, Part 1b – Fraud, and Part 2 – Frustration
Week 7: February 18, 2016 | Unit 6: Interpretation of Contracts
Week 8: February 25, 2016 | Unit 7: Part 1a – Remedies and Specific Performance: 2 Measures of Expectation Damages, Unit 7: Part 1b – Reliance Damages and Specific Performance; and Unit 7: Part 2 – Third Parties
Course Schedule
Below is a suggested schedule for getting through the material. Of course, feel free to work at your own pace, studying whenever is best for you. Most lecture segments are followed by short assessments and all units have larger, end-of-unit tests, as detailed below.
Introduction
January 7, 2016 | Introduction
Assignments: Lectures 1.1 – 1.6 (approx. 32 min), Deadweight Loss Exercise
Unit 1: 4 Principles
January 11, 2016 | Intro, Intent to Create Legal Relations?; Both Sides Serious?
Assignments: Lectures 2.1 – 2.5 (approx. 21 min), Checkpoint Assessment
January 14, 2016 | Legal and Moral?, Gift or Bargain?, Complications – Uncle’s Promise, Brother-In-Law, Demotsis v. Batsakis
Assignments: Lectures 2.6 – 2.15 (approx. 25 min), Self Test
January 18, 2016 | Complications (continued) – Post v. Jones, Car Accident, Alaska Packers, Christmas Shop Manager
Assignments: Lectures 2.16 – 2.23 (approx. 26 min), Unit Test: Enforceable Bargains
Unit 2: Empty Bag
January 22, 2016 | One-Sided Promises; Empty Bags
Assignments: Lectures 3.1 – 3.4 (approx. 32 min), Unit Test
Unit 3: Offer/Acceptance
January 28, 2016 | Promises Given for Something; Acceptance
Assignments: Lectures 4.1 – 4.4 (approx. 24 min), Unit Test
Unit 4: Law at the Margins
February 4, 2016 | Charitable Subscriptions
Assignments: Lectures 5.1 (approx. 15 min)
February 8, 2016 | Reliance?
Assignments: Lectures 5.2 – 5.5 (approx. 30 min), Unit Test
Unit 5: Mistakes, Fraud, and Frustration
February 11, 2016 | Part 1a: Mistakes
Assignments: Lectures 6.1 – 6.5 (approx. 34 min)
February 14, 2016 | Part 1b: Fraud
Assignments: Lectures 6.6 – 6.9 (approx. 26 min), Unit Test: Mistakes and Fraud
February 16, 2016 | Part 2: Frustration
Assignments: Lectures 6.10 – 6.17 (approx. 28 min), Unit Test: Frustration
Unit 6: Interpretation of Contracts
February 18, 2016 | Part 1a: Interpretation
Assignments: Lectures 6.1 – 6.5 (approx. 60 min)
Unit 7: Remedies and Specific Performance, Third Parties
February 25, 2016 | Part 1a: Remedies and Specific Performance: Two Measures of Expectation Damages
Assignments: Lectures 7.1 – 7.5 (approx. 37 min)
February 28, 2016 | Part 1b: Reliance Damages and Specific Performance
Assignments: 7.6 – 7.8 (approx. 31 min), Unit Test: Remedies and Specific Performance
March 1, 2016 | Part 2: Third Parties
Assignments: Lectures 7.9 – 7.14 (approx. 20 min), Unit Test: Third Parties
March 3, 2016 | Final
Assignments: Final Test
Grading
To pass this course, you will need to maintain a course average of at least 60 percent. Students who pass this course can receive a certificate of completion. These certificates will be issued a few days after the course closes. The course closes on March 12, 2016 at 12 pm (EST), so if you want a certificate, you will have need to have successfully attained a 60 percent or higher by that time and switch to the certificate track.
Assessments in this course range from simple multiple choice and short answer questions to more open-ended assignments, such as polls and discussion boards. Each unit ends with a unit test, these 7 unit tests are worth 60 percent of the final course score. Similarly, the course ends with a comprehensive final test, worth 15 percent of the final score. There are also a number of questions and opportunities to participate that appear after lecture segments throughout the course. Although not every question is graded, completing each question generally counts towards your final score and is highly recommended.
Please note that in order to earn an "ID Verified Certificate" it is necessary to change to the ID Verified track before the course closes. We have set a deadline of March 9 for changing to the ID Verified track.
Readings
There are no assigned readings or texts. However, we of course recommend that you purchase Prof. Fried's book on Contracts. Please note that this revised edition became available in April of 2015.
Other texts you might consider are the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, available here, and finally Chirelstein's Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts here. Please note that used copies of these and earlier editions are available at very reasonable prices.
Credits
Although some of the images in the course videos are licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license, the other course content and materials remain subject to the EdX Terms of Service.
Disclosure
This course is hosting a study on participation and learning. There will be treatment groups and a control group. We will also send a short, optional survey to get your feedback. Your information would be completely confidential. Your being included in the experiment would benefit future students through insights into encouraging learning. If you would rather not be included in this study, you’ll have the chance to opt-out through the course update emails. Otherwise, we greatly appreciate your willingness to improve online education by being included.