CONTRACTS
PROFESSOR NEUSTADTER

SYLLABUS
2000-2001

[Prior exams]   [Electronic Discussion]  [Electronic reserve]

Professor Gary Neustadter
     Bergin 207
     (408) 554-4378 (with voice mail); FAX (408) 554-4426
     gneustadter@scu.edu
     http://www.scu.edu/law/FacWebPage/Neustadter/

Reading Materials 

     Neustadter, Contracts 2000 (download without charge from Professor Neustadter's electronic reserve page for Contracts or purchase hard copy from Campus Bookstore) (required);

     Farnsworth, Contracts (3rd Ed. Aspen) (recommended)

     White & Summers, Uniform Commercial Code (5th Ed. West Group) (recommended)

Assignments, Other Announcements, and E-Mail 
 
     Specific reading assignments will be announced in class. 

     Reading assignments, other announcements, drafting assignments, and news or supplementary materials will be posted on Professor Neusdtadter's electronic reserve page for Contracts. 

Course Requirements 

     1.  Class Attendance and Participation 

     I expect regular class attendance and consistent preparation of assignments in anticipation of class discussion. If you are not prepared for class discussion because of illness or for other appropriate reasons, please note your name for me on a piece of paper and give it to me prior to the start of class.  I reserve the right to adjust your final course grade downward for excessive absenteeism or frequent lack of preparation. 

     2.  Contract drafting 

    As a condition to receiving credit for the course, you must participate in 2 or 3 contract drafting assignments undertaken in small groups.   Details will be announced in class and specific drafting assignments will be posted on Professor Neustadter's electronic reserve page for Contracts.    

     3.  Examinations and Grading 

     There will be a midterm examination in December and a final examination at the end of the Spring semester.  Dates, times and locations will be posted by the Law School Records Office.  The midterm examination will count approximately 33% toward calculation of your final course grade and the final examination will count approximately 66% toward calculation of your final course grade.  Grading in the course is subject to the Law School's mandatory grade curve for first year courses.  

     You may take either or both of your examinations on a laptop computer or on desktop computers located in the Law Library.   Each examination will be "limited open book."  This means that during the examination you may consult your (annotated) copy of Neustadter, Contracts 2000 (both in electronic form and hard copy), and any notes, outlines or other work product that you have produced either alone or in cooperation with other students in the class.   You may not consult any other materials, including the recommended reading materials, because the cost of additional materials may disadvantage some students. 

Electronic enabled discussion

     I encourage you to participate in electronic enabled discussion of class topics.  Two types of discussion are available:  (1) asynchronous threaded discussion in which you and I may post or respond to questions or ideas; (2) live chat.  In either case you may post anonymously. 

     To access discussion for the first time, select the Discussion link from my home page and then follow the link for New Users.  After creating your own user profile you may log in at any time using the user name and password that you have created in your profile. 

     For threaded discussion, simply click on the Contracts conference and either post a new topic or reply to previous posts.  For chat, click first on chat and then select Contracts chat. 

Office hours

     My formal office hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 - noon.  I will be available for electronic chat at times to be announced in class.  Please feel free to stop in at other times without appointment.  I am usually on campus a substantial portion of each weekday except for late Tuesday or Thursday afternoons.  You may also schedule an appointment by phone or through e-mail.  I am not available on Mondays or Wednesdays from 10:15 - noon because I teach an upper division class at those times. 

Web Site

     On my web site you will find prior exams, a link to electronic enabled discussion, a link to electronic reserve for Contracts, and selected links to carefully selected web sites relating to law, legal education, and other sites of use to law students and lawyers.  I especially encourage you to surf those selected links to become acquainted with some of the important law related resources available on the web.