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Remedies (LAWS50036)

Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

Availability(Quotas apply)
Semester 1
November
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This subject studies the nature, goals and structure of private law remedies, and is organised around the remedial goals of compensation, perfection, vindication, disgorgement, restitution and punishment. The subject explores how and why these different remedial goals are accorded differing priority and/or are given effect in different ways across different areas of private law, specifically torts, contract and equity, thereby deepening the student's understanding of remedies and also the nature of each of these substantive fields of private law.

Topics to be covered in the subject will include:

  • Compensation (compensatory (including aggravated) damages for breach of contract, tort and in equity);
  • Perfection (debt, specific performance and injunctions);
  • Vindication (damages in substitution of rights and vindicatory damages);
  • Disgorgement and accounting for profits;
  • Restitution (the measure of restitution; rescission; unjust enrichment);
  • Punishment in private law (exemplary damages); and
  • Statutory remedies.

 

Intended learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students will:

  • have developed an acute understanding of the critical importance of having an integrated understanding of the private law as a whole.

Generic skills

On completion of the subject, students will have developed sophisticated cognitive technical and creative skills in:

  • Demonstrating mastery of private law remedies and the relationship between rights, remedies and private law as a whole;
  • Understanding, interpreting, comparing and reflecting critically on case law and statute relating to private law remedies from the various Australian jurisdictions and overseas;
  • Analysing, comparing and reflecting critically on scholarly commentary from the various Australian jurisdictions and overseas;
  • The ability to engage in precise and nuanced legal reasoning and argumentation at a high level;
  • The ability to think creatively about solutions to complex legal problems;
  • The ability to examine legal doctrine from different theoretical perspectives, to evaluate different theoretical frameworks, and to formulate original theoretical arguments.
  • The ability to conduct original research into complex legal questions;
  • The ability to communicate complex knowledge and ideas to specialist and non-specialist audiences; and
  • Understanding the effects of choices made over particular causes of action and remedies for the outcomes of legal claims.

Last updated: 31 January 2024