Course Material

[everyone presumably had an introductory US contracts course in their first year, so I do not assign specific reading for the Common Law doctrinal approach to contracts, but think about the comparison to doctrines like consideration, contract formation, etc.]

Session 4

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

Indonesian Contract Law Example of Civil Law, Legal Pluralism and Continuity

James Gordley, Contract Law in Precommercial Societies
in VII International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law,
Martinus Nijhoff, Hague, 1997, pp 2-2/2-19

Sudargo Gautama, Contract Law in Indonesian Business Law, Citra Aditya Bakti, Bandung, 1995, pp 67-118

[also take some time online to compare also the structure of contract law in terms of how the Indonesian Civil Code structure for obligations portrayed still tracks the obligations portions in Book III of the Code Napoleon of 1804 online at http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/c_code.html, no surprise since the still largely valid (Dutch colonial) Indonesian Civil Code is largely of 1840s vintage, but still in terms of modern French & German Civil Codes accessible online in translation at http://lexinter.net/ENGLISH/civil_code.htm (French Civil Code) and http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/statutes (different links for German Civil Code), then take a quick law at the new Chinese Unified Contract Law's structure online in translation at the Chinese Civil Law Forum (http://www.cclaw.net) and ask yourself whether from the viewpoint of technical doctrinal approaches Indonesian and Chinese contract law appears on its face to be more amenable to Civil Law or Common Law analysis]

Session 5

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

Chinese Contract Law Development: Modernization How,
100+ years and Counting

Dan Fenno Henderson & Preston M. Torbert, Traditional
Contract Law in Japan and China in VII International
Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, Martinus Nijhoff,
Hague, 1992, pp 6-2/6-40

Xie Huaishi,The Contract Law of Modern China in VII
International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law,
Martinus Nijhoff, Hague, 1992, pp 6-43/6-75

Jianfu Chen, From Administrative Authorisation to
Private Law: A Comparative Perspective of the
Developing Civil Law in the People's Republic of
China, Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, 1995, pp 1-68

[Please note that you are examining over 100 years of
contract law development since the 19th century, and
the assigned materials were all written before passage
of the 1999 Chinese Unified Contracts Law and related
materials which you accessed for Session 4 at
http://www.cclaw.net/download/download.asp
but ask yourself the following questions: to what
extent is the Henderson & Torbert piece describing the
traditional world according to Gordley on
precommercial society (which leaks into Gautama's
collateral discussion of Indonesian Adat contract
law), or rather the modern ethnic Chinese business
people in Southeast Asia alluded to in Linnan talking
about the current Manulife controversy? Is there an
underlying difference between Xie Huaishi and Jianfu
Chen, both writing in the early 1990s, with the
benefit of hindsight now that we see the 1999 Unified
Contracts Law as it turned out in mainland China?
Where, if at all, does the recent announcement fit
concerning adding private property protection to the
Chinese Constitution?]

Session 6

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

Introduction to the CISG

First, read the entire CISG treaty at

http://www.cisg-online.ch/cisg/conv/convuk.htm

then look at who has joined the treaty with whatever reservations at

http://www.uncitral.org/english/status/United%20Nations%20Convention%20on%20Contracts%20for%20the%20International%20Sale%20of%20Goods%20(Vienna,%201980)

Please pay particular attention to the CISG's scope provisions. We shall not talk about the whole treaty for this assignment, but you need to understand its structure generally. Then, please answer the following questions about whether the CISG applies under several fact patterns in the following questions. You just need to address the scope question, namely to make the initial determination whether the CISG applies.

Session 7

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

First, review again the CISG treaty at

http://www.cisg-online.ch/cisg/conv/convuk.htm

Please pay particular attention to the CISG's offer and acceptance or entry into contract provisions. Most of the questions involve proper application of CISG articles 14-24, but some pull in other provisions too. Please answer the following questions about whether the CISG applies under several fact patterns in the following questions. You just need to address the formation of contract question, namely to make the initial determination whether the CISG applies.

Session 8

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

These are your promised fact patterns to work under the CISG and form contract accessible here as a separate word document. FYI, these are actual recent cases so that I can give you the cites if you wish. When I ask you to split up and do the buyer versus seller redraft, I will also give you some more complex fact patterns since these are somewhat plain vanilla although chosen for demonstrating specific points.

Fact Pattern One

Fact Pattern Two

Session 9

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

These are your promised fact patterns to work under the CISG and revised boilerplate form contract provisions you have prepared in redrafting.

Session 10

David Linnan
Univ. of South Carolina
School of Law

Laker Airways, 559 F. Supp. 1124 (DC 1984)