General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6322 / JDOC6322 |
| Course name: | The Private Law of Cooperative Institutions |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
This course provides an introduction to the application of traditional core private law doctrines to cooperative institutions. Such cooperative institutions—notably including employee-owned corporations, land trusts, housing cooperatives, and credit unions—have long attracted interest as alternative forms of legal organization for those concerned with issues of equitable economic and social development. These institutions demonstrate the possibilities and challenges of private law innovations which deviate from the dominant modern legal form— implicating central issues in contract, property, trust, banking and corporate law.
As such, this course will examine historical and contemporary examples of such attempts and the regulatory difficulties they confront in relationship to both courts and other market actors. While initially emphasizing common law examples, the course will demonstrate the modern transnationalization of these forms across varied legal systems as part of continuing concern with developing sustainable legal forms based on cooperative economics.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Jedidiah Kroncke | kroncke@hku.hk | CCT 610 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1Understand the historical background and key precedents for developing cooperative legal forms in the 19th and 20th centuries.
CLO 2 Apply knowledge of past precedents to develop a clear understanding the role of private law innovations in advancing alternative legal forms, and its limitations.
CLO 3 Use cooperative legal forms to develop an awareness of legal design is central to the practical translation of alternative normative framework into working social institutions.
CLO 4 Assess how legal design issues operate in the context of transnational economic and legal activity, and how agency issues diverge in comparative context.
CLO 5 Demonstrate a capacity for understanding how lawyers and legal expertise can constructively engage with clients and stakeholders who seek legal solutions to forming cooperative institutions.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Weekly writing reactions | TBC | 25% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Group reading presentations | TBC | 25% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Research paper | TBC | 50% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/