Agency

This subject is not offered in 2011.

100 to 126 hours. (Non-contact commitment is estimated at 2-3 hours per week during the teaching period, and 40-72 hours in total during the non-teaching periods).

Legal Method and Reasoning; Principles of Public Law; Torts; Obligations; Contracts; LAWS30004 Property or in each case their equivalents.

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills, and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to providing support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/.

Agency arises where one person (the agent) has the power to create legal relations between a person authorising that power (the principal) and another person (a third party). The law of agency plays a significant role throughout commercial law. The subject commences by situating agency both within the system of private law and within a framework of economic policy. From this foundation the subject allows students to develop an understanding of the fundamentals of the law of agency. Those fundamentals: how agency is established between principals and agents; what obligations arise between principals and agents; the nature relations between agents and third parties; the nature of relations between principals and third parties; the existence of prominent agency cases (such as those involving corporations and real estate) and the means by which agency is terminated.

A student who completes Agency should:

• Appreciate the nature and policy role of agency as a distinct legal institution within Private Law;
• Recognise the elements which create the existence of agency;
• Determine the legal obligations which arise from the existence of agency;
• Apply agency law in particular scenarios to resolve legal ambiguity and arrive at reasoned conclusions as to what legal outcomes may pertain;
• Evaluate such application of agency law in particular scenarios against its policy role.

• A 5,000 word written problem-solving task weighted at 100% (due a date to be fixed at the end of the semester);
• A hurdle requirement (that is a task which must be submitted prior to the submission of the 5,000 word assessment task) comprising the submission of a 500 word written outline of the proposed answer to the problem-solving task by the end of the tenth teaching week.

For each task Marking Code 2 will apply in the following way:

• In relation to the 5,000 word assessment task, work judged grossly in excess of the word limit may incur a marking penalty;
• In relation to the 500 word hurdle requirement, work judged grossly in excess of the word limit may be returned for rewriting.
  

• Simon Fisher, Agency Law (2000, LexisNexis Butterworths);
• Printed materials will be available from the Melbourne Law School.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of Agency, students should have developed the following generic skills:

• The capacity for close reading of a range of sources;
• The capacity for critical and independent thought and reflection;
• The capacity for deductive analysis;
• The capacity to solve problems through the synthesis and evaluation of information.

In addition, and more specific to the discipline of law, students should be able to:

• Assess the nature and role of a discrete Private Law legal institution;
• Analyse judgments, statutes and secondary materials which relate to a discrete Private Law legal institution, analysis which comprises:
  
  - Extracting the relevant aspects;
  - Reconciling apparent conflicts and inconsistencies.
  
• Conduct legal research on issues relating to a discrete Private Law legal institution, research which comprises an ability to find, synthesise and analyse written material beyond that contained within the curriculum;
• Write legal opinions on particular scenarios, which comprises:
  
  - Identifying legal issues;
  - Arriving at reasoned conclusions as to the rights and obligations of the parties;
  - Commenting on the desirability or otherwise of the application of the law.