What is a contract? How can you make one binding? How can you avoid being prematurely bound by one? What remedies are available if someone breaches your contract? These questions and the other important issues of legally enforceable promises are covered in these eight lectures. As you'll learn in these eight lectures, contractual agreements are one of the principal mechanisms for ordering life in society. Professor Cross lays a comprehensive foundation in the practical and intricate body of law that governs contracts. Throughout his expertly delivered lectures, he guides you through a range of topics and issues and helps you finally make better sense of business contracts-in all their seemingly overwhelming complexity. You'll explore the boundaries of contracts in law, including the four main requirements that any contract must satisfy. You'll unpack the Uniform Commercial Code of the United States, which incorporated common law about commercial contracts into state statutes. You'll learn about the main components of a contract (such as the preliminary issues of offer and acceptance, the definiteness of a contract's terms, and the ability of parties to negotiate). You'll also review problems associated with the performance and enforcement of a contract, including how much of a performance is required to consider a contract discharged and the categories of persons who are permitted to enforce agreements.
Business Law: Contracts
01: Foundations of Contract
Contract is defined, and the elements and types of contracts are examined.
02: Offer and Acceptance
One party makes an offer and the other accepts, refuses, or makes a counter-offer, but there are many possible slips in between. Which offers are binding? How must acceptance be communicated?
03: Consideration, Capacity, and Form
We look at three more elements of a binding contract, what each party must give up for a contract to be made, whether and when those of a "diminished capacity" can make contracts, and when a contract must be in writing.
04: Geniuneness and Discharge
When does a mistake by either party or fraud by one of them invalidate a contract? When can a party successfully claim that an agreement was reached under duress?
05: Performances and Discharge
If you've ever built a house, you have surely wondered what the law requires when a valid contract is in place and one party does not perform to its obligations. What conditions will excuse performance?
06: Remedies
If a contract has been breached, how do the courts decide how much you are owed?
07: Third-Party Rights
When can rights under a contract be assigned to someone else? When can a contract that benefits you be enforced by you?
08: International Contracts
Simple translation is only the first problem and there are hundreds of variations on rules among countries. We focus on issues raised by international agreements, letters of credit, and other commercial practices.
About
Professor Frank B. Cross is Professor in the Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management at The University of Texas at Austin and a former attorney with the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C. He earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. At Texas, Professor Cross has taught undergraduate classes, MBA classes, and executive-education courses in aspects of the legal environment in business. He has been honored as the nation's outstanding professor by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. He was recognized as a top teacher by the Business Week guide to MBA programs. Professor Cross has authored many publications, including more than 30 articles in journals of law, science, policy, and management. He has published four textbooks for business law classes, as well as several other academic books. Professor Cross serves on the editorial boards of four journals, including the American Business Journal.
