Module VII Capstone & Year Synthesis

This is the final class meeting of Contracts II. It serves a double purpose: Module VII Capstone and Year Synthesis. The Capstone structure block below sets the time blocks; the bridge at the end pivots from Module VII to the spring final.

Why a capstone here

Module VII covers remedies (expectation, reliance, restitution; limitations on damages; alternative remedies) and third-party beneficiaries. The damages calculation puts the doctrine in the form the bar exam and commercial practice actually require: three measures computed on the same facts, with a recommendation as to which the plaintiff should elect. A student who can write five hundred words about Hadley v. Baxendale without ever computing a damages number has not yet learned the doctrine in the form that matters.

Synthesis material

The bridge block (final ten minutes of the meeting) is the only time in the year the professor speaks directly to spring-final preparation: the rubric, the time budget, the study method, what the rubric rewards, what the rubric does not. See the Exam Prep portal for the practice exam, the four model essays with IRAC color coding, and the canonical rubric.

The year, in one frame

Day 1 read Hawkins v. McGee and asked the question that has run under every class since: what is the legal value of a broken promise? The year answered in seven moves. Formation — offer, acceptance, consideration. Enforceability — the defenses that let the law refuse to enforce. Interpretation — what the words mean and what counts as the contract. Performance — conditions and substantial performance. Breach and excuse — repudiation, material breach, impracticability, frustration. Remedies — expectation as the default, run through the foreseeability, certainty, and mitigation filters, with reliance and restitution as alternatives. Third parties — beneficiaries, assignees, delegatees who acquire rights or duties without being original parties. Hawkins comes home in the remedies module: the court awarded the difference between the promised hand and the delivered one.

What you should be able to do at the end of the year

Read a contract problem, identify each doctrinal pressure point, name the governing rule, apply it to the facts, and argue both sides. Trace one fact pattern from formation through remedy. Pick the right remedy and run the damages stack to a number. See that doctrine is contingent — rules have histories, alternatives, and critics — and still deploy it under timed pressure. The exam tests deployment, not recitation. Bring the map.