General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6248 / JDOC6248 |
| Course name: | Comparative Contract Law |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
Hong Kong is a diverse, dynamic and highly international jurisdiction. Its legal market is closely linked with other parts of world. Transactions are carried out globally today; we just cannot avoid encountering both common and civil lawyers from other jurisdictions whose legal systems and legal thinking or ideas are different from those of Hong Kong. The purpose of this course is to explore the contract laws of some of the East Asian jurisdictions such as Japan, Korea, and China, and the contract law of England from a comparative perspective. The first three jurisdictions in East Asia adopt the Civil Law Tradition and have received the Romano-Germanic civil code, while England adopts the common law tradition.
This course will cover most of the important topics in contract law ranging from precontractual liability to breach of contracts. It is hoped that the course provides students with an excellent opportunity (1) to observe the similarities and differences between contract laws of two of the world’s major legal traditions/systems, and (2) to acquire the knowledge and skills required in the study of comparative contract law either as a practitioner or an academic. For more details on the topics covered in each class, please see the teaching schedule below.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Wu Ying-Chieh | bras2145@snu.ac.kr | TBA | By email |
1.4 Course outline (for elective course)
| Please click the link here for the course outline (HKU Portal login required). |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 It helps students grasp the legal mind of different legal systems.
CLO 2 Stimulates them reflect on their own domestic legislation, case-law and legal policies, and, most importantly.
CLO 3 Inspires them to develop novel ideas by which our own legal problems can be resolved. This is why in practice we can commonly find legislators, courts, and academics constantly refer to foreign law and conduct comparative legal analysis.
CLO 4 The study of contracts laws in other parts of Asia will broaden students’ legal horizons and enable them to have diverse legal minds in response to the globalization era.
2.2 LLM Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Review quizzes or presentation | 20% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Take home exam | 80% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| *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). See also Course Outline above.
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 intensive mode in January 2027 |
| 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: |
|
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/