Dr Paul MacMahon

Additional Teachers: Dr Rachel Leow and Dr Joseph Spooner

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is not available as an outside option nor to General Course students.

This course builds on LL142 Contract Law. Students are advised to take it concurrently with LL276 Property (or after LL275 Property II).

This half-unit course covers fundamental ideas in the private law of business-to-business transactions. Building on LL142 Contract Law, the course explores how contract law principles apply to specific types of business deal. It also complements LL275 Property II and LL276 Property’s examination of property and trusts by addressing personal property law issues in commercial contexts. Topics are likely to include sale of goods, banking, credit and security, agency, and assignment. Students will learn to apply their knowledge to new situations and to evaluate existing laws and proposed reforms.

Two hours of lectures and one hour of class per week in Winter Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

At least one formative essay.

Core reading consists mainly of judicial decisions and statutory provisions. Useful secondary sources include:

• Goode and McKendrick on Commercial Law (6th edition, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2020)
• William Day, Commercial Law (Hart Publishing, 2023)
• Rachel Leow, ‘Understanding Agency: A Proxy Power Definition’ (2019) 79 Cambridge Law Journal 99
• Andrew Dyson (Summers) and Adam Kramer, ‘There is No “Breach Date Rule”: Mitigation, Difference in Value and Date of Assessment’ (2014) 130 Law Quarterly Review 259
• Michael Bridge, ‘Risk, Property, and Bulk Goods in International Sales’ [2019] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 57
• Paul MacMahon, ‘Rethinking Assignability’ (2020) 79 Cambridge Law Journal 288
• Sarah Paterson, ‘The Insolvency Law Consequences of the Abolition of the Fixed/Floating Charge Distinction’ Secured Transactions Law Reform Project Discussion Paper (2016)
• Sir Ross Cranston et al, Principles of Banking Law (3rd edn, OUP, 2018)

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.