Contracts I & II
Contract Law: Rules, Cases, and Problems (2d ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2025)
The course at a glance
- Casebook: Oranburg, Contract Law: Rules, Cases, and Problems (2d ed., 2025)
- Structure: two independently graded courses. Contracts I (Fall 2026) covers Modules I–IV (Chapters 1–13). Contracts II (Spring 2027) covers Modules V–VII (Chapters 14–28).
- Meetings: 52 class meetings across the year, on a T/Th schedule.
- LMS: Brightspace (gradebook, MCQ quizzes, announcements, course documents).
- Companion site: this site — chapter materials, case briefs, rule pages, interactive exercises (self-paced), exam-prep portal.
Assessment philosophy
A first-year contracts course is two things at once. It is a doctrinal acculturation, where the student learns what offer, acceptance, consideration, parol evidence, and expectation damages mean with enough precision to recognize them in an unfamiliar fact pattern. It is also a vocational formation, where the student starts to behave like a lawyer. A single instrument cannot see both.
The course therefore uses three assessment instruments. Each is chosen because it sees a dimension the others miss. None is weighted so heavily that one bad morning destroys a semester. A strong essayist who is an average MCQ taker, and a strong oral participant who is an average essayist, both have legitimate paths to the top of the curve.
Grade composition
Contracts I and Contracts II are graded independently. Each semester's grade is computed only from that semester's instruments. Fall and spring do not average.
Contracts I (Fall 2026)
| Component | Weight | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Final exam (Modules I–IV) | 70% | Three-hour written essay exam |
| Module quizzes (Modules II–IV) | 15% | 3 in-class MCQ quizzes at 5% each, taken at the Module Capstone class meeting. Module I's quiz is at-home, completion-only, and does not count toward the grade. |
| Class Participation | 15% | Cold call, in-class exercises when run, take-home work when assigned, professor's holistic read of preparation and engagement |
| Total | 100% |
Contracts II (Spring 2027)
| Component | Weight | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Final exam (Modules V–VII) | 75% | Three-hour written essay exam |
| Module quizzes (Modules V–VII) | 15% | 3 in-class MCQ quizzes at 5% each, taken at the Module Capstone class meeting |
| Class Participation | 10% | Cold call, in-class exercises when run, take-home work when assigned, professor's holistic read of preparation and engagement |
| Total | 100% |
Fall participation is weighted more heavily than spring because the fall final is the first law-school exam most students have ever taken; allocating less weight to it reduces single-event risk during a period when students are still learning the cold-call system, the doctrine, and law school. By spring the floor is higher on every dimension and the final fairly carries more weight. The Brightspace gradebook mirrors these weights exactly. There is no hidden curve, no shadow rubric, no end-of-term professional-judgment multiplier.
The three instruments, in detail
Final exams (70% Fall / 75% Spring)
Each semester ends with a three-hour, closed-book, all-essay exam covering only that semester's modules. The Fall exam tests Modules I–IV (Chapters 1–13). The Spring exam tests Modules V–VII (Chapters 14–28). There is no midterm in either semester. See the Exam Prep portal for the practice exam, four model student essays with IRAC color coding, and the rubric.
Module quizzes at Module Capstones (15% each semester)
Each module (except Module I) ends with a Capstone class meeting structured in four time blocks: a 25-minute in-class MCQ quiz, a 30-minute item-level debrief that uses the quiz as the module's synthesis text, a 45-minute in-class skills exercise that converts what would otherwise be take-home work into supervised in-class drafting / negotiation / redlining / damages computation as part of class participation, and a 10-minute bridge to the next module.
Six Module Capstones across the year: three in the fall (Modules II, III, IV) and three in the spring (Modules V, VI, VII).
Module I has no in-class capstone and no in-class quiz. The Module I quiz is delivered at home through Brightspace in the first week of the semester, completion-only, 0% weight. It exists so students can see how the quiz tool works before the first scored attempt at the Module II Capstone. Each scored Module Capstone quiz (Modules II, III, IV in fall; V, VI, VII in spring) counts 5% toward that semester's grade. Honor-enforcement is in-room (laptops closed except for the Brightspace quiz interface).
Class Participation (15% Fall / 10% Spring)
Class Participation is one holistic bucket that absorbs everything that happens between the lectures and the exam: cold-call performance, contribution to in-class exercises when they are run, completion and quality of take-home work when it is assigned, and the professor's overall read of preparation and engagement. Whether a given class period runs as a discussion, a drafting exercise, a redline challenge, a negotiation simulation, or a problem set is at instructor discretion across the semester. The mix is not announced in advance.
Participation in this course is not a charisma tax. The introverted student who is prepared every day and answers cleanly when called gets the same credit as the extroverted student who answers cleanly when called. Unsolicited volunteering does not raise the score; preparation when called does.
The cold-call rubric
Cold calls are scored on four three-point dimensions for a total of 12 points per cold call. Cold-call scores aggregate into the Class Participation bucket; they are not a separately reported grade.
| Dimension | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual accuracy | Facts of the case stated correctly and economically | Facts mostly correct; minor gaps | Material factual error or extensive unfamiliarity |
| Doctrinal articulation | Rule stated with the precision the casebook uses | Rule stated in substance though not in form | Rule misstated or absent |
| Responsiveness to follow-up | Adjusts cleanly to a follow-up hypothetical | Adjusts with a prompt or partial success | Does not engage the follow-up or doubles down on the wrong answer |
| Preparation evident | Reading internalized; can quote the holding language | Reading done; recall under pressure imperfect | Reading not done, or reading done without identifying the rule the casebook flags as the rule of the case |
Reading expectations
Each class meeting has assigned reading from the casebook and, for some classes, supporting cases or rules listed on the per-class pages. Reading is non-optional. You should arrive at each class having read the assignment and having prepared, in writing if it helps you, your own answer to one question: what is the rule of this case?
The interactive Middle-earth exercises on this companion site are optional, self-paced study resources. They are not graded; they do not feed into Brightspace; they exist for students who learn best by doing. Use them as deeply or as lightly as fits your study habit.
The year's structure
The full T/Th meeting schedule, including holidays and Module Capstone dates, lives on the Calendar. Each class has its own per-class page with the assigned reading, rules, cases, and (where available) the slide deck.
Sample exam and model essays
See the Exam Prep portal for the 2022 practice exam, four model essays with IRAC color coding and the professor's marginal commentary, must-know cases by module, and rule clusters by module.