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Course Description
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With global specialization, trade is essential for life. Contracts must be concluded, goods shipped, and payments received. Much US trade law derives from the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) which you met in your Contracts course. This course includes selected topics in Article 2 (sales), Article 3 (negotiable instruments), Article 4A (payment orders), Article 5 (letters of credit), and Article 7 (bills of lading). More than half of the course will examine the largely independent life of Article 9 (secured transactions) which among other virtues helps soothe the fears of parties sending money and goods into the unknown.
This is a unique, rigorous, assignment-based, online, asynchronous course centered on approximately three hours of weekly session videos which open each Friday morning, preceded by detailed class prep assignments due midnight Thursday, and followed by wider-ranging post-video assignments due Tuesdays. Save for the 3-hour multiple-choice final exam proctored in-person at Miami Law the course could be taken from anywhere on earth with an appropriate Internet connection. Since assignments begin immediately, the course cannot be added after Classes Begin without written permission. You must complete all first eight course assignments to continue in the course.
Enrolled students are strongly advised to have the coursebook when the course begins, as it will not be possible to complete assignments without it (although PDFs of the first few chapters will be available on the course LMS). Note that the statutory supplement is only recommended as the relevant statute is available online.
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Course Schedule
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None
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Course Frequency
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This course is usually offered once every academic year
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Course Information
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Credits:
4
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Pass/Fail Option:
No
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Prerequisite:
None
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Method of Evaluation:
Required completed assignments and a proctored, in-person, closed book, 3-hour, final exam at Miami Law with approximately 40 to 60 multi-state type questions. If you timely and satisfactorily complete 44 of the approximately 50 assignments (~90%) and take the final examination, you will pass the course; that is, you will get a grade which translates into numerical grade of 2.0 or better (probably better). Collaboration on the assignments is encouraged but your submissions must be worded by you alone, monitored by a SafeAssign score of 10% or less (most students score zero). Each satisfactory assignment earns one point. Missing, late, or unoriginal assignments receive no or only token credit. You must complete all of the first eight course assignments to continue in the course and must earn 40 points (~80% of those possible) to avoid a grade reduction. The grade curve is generally adjusted to fit the entering grade profile of class, so students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the presence of other students.
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Graduation Requirements Fulfilled By Course:
General
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Special Attributes:
Bar Course
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Course Delivery:
Online (all asynchronous)
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Special Restrictions:
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Law Track(s):
None
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Bar Subject(s):
FLORIDA
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Concentration(s):
Business Compliance and Sustainability (Area of Focus)
More information
Business Compliance and Sustainability (Concentration)
More information
The Business of Innovation, Law and Technology: BILT (Concentration)
More information
Transactional Law (Area of Focus)
More information
Transactional Law (Concentration)
More information
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Course Book(s):
Textbook Required:
Yes
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Textbook Name: Problems and Materials on Commercial Law [Connected eBook with Study Center] (Aspen Casebook)
Textbook Type: Hardcover
Requirement: Required
Author: Douglas J. Whaley, Stephen M. McJohn
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer
Edition: 12
ISBN: 9781543825909
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Textbook Name: Selected Commercial Statutes, 2024 Edition (Selected Statutes)
Textbook Type: Looseleaf
Requirement: Recommended
Author: Carol Chomsky, Christina Kunz, Elizabeth Schiltz, Anne Lawton
Publisher: West Academic Publishing
Edition: 2024
ISBN: 9798892090483
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First Class Assignment(s):
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Assignment:
Assignment Welcome to the course! I am glad you are here. For the bookless, BB will also include PDFs of the initial assigned chapters. The first two assignments, Sessions 1 & 2, are both due Thursday midnight, August 22, 2024, and include the following. For Class Prep Session 1 please read on your own ("oyo") Whaley preface (approx. xxvii) and txCh. 1 [Note: "tx" = text; "pb" = problem(s).] When the course BB opens, Session 1 will also ask you for your goals for the course and for some information to allow me to get to know you. For Class Prep Session 2 the assignment is txCh. 2, pb1 [all], pb2-7, and at the end of each chapter, you should solve the Assessment MCQs to test your understanding, then check the answers following. (You are not responsible for any of the text’s cases except as I might discuss them in the Sessions.) [My ref: …cl10.01/0 firstclass…]
Material:
Materials The required text is DOUGLAS J. WHALEY ET AL., PROBLEMS AND MATERIALS ON COMMERCIAL LAW (latest ed.) (“coursebook,” “text” or simply “T”), and access to the Uniform Commercial Code. Generally, I will use WEST, SELECTED COMMERCIAL STATUTES (latest ed.) (statutory supplement, or simply “ss”) and it will control the final examination. You will need the assigned coursebook, but any recent used copy of the statutory supplement should suffice. It will include the Comments and be cheaper. If you are short of cash, google “Uniform Commercial Code,” or simply use your Lexis/Westlaw student account. (I used https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2021/Title39/#Title39 in my PowerPoint slides.) Of course, this is less convenient, and you take the (very slight) risk that any of these versions are not identical to the statutory supplement which controls the final. Online versions may not include the Comments, but we do not often get that far into the weeds.
TWEN/Blackboard/Course Webpage Link:
Log into Blackboard (BB) for our course.
Additional Information:
Additional Information For your convenience, I have asked the COPY CENTER to run off additional helpful documents: (1) the Course Guide (without attachments) (doc1); (2) the attachments (docs 2a & 2b); (3) course PowerPoint PDFs (doc3); and (4) a workbook perhaps useful in completing the Class Prep assignments (doc4). When completed, BB will also have complete PDFs of all save doc4, but we thought some might like hard copies. Our course requires a substantial time commitment and consists of 26 Sessions centered around two or more video sets opening each Friday morning. Videos are preceded by associated Class Prep assignments due the day before, Thursday, and followed by Post Video assignments four days later, Tuesday. The Friday videos could easily total more than three hours of viewing spread between Friday and Tuesday. Add the time to complete the Class Prep and Post Video assignments and we are not talking about a walk in the park. On the other hand, I believe you will find the material accessible and rewarding. Our course uses detailed assignments inspired by the Oxbridge tutorial method instead of the Socratic method with which you are familiar. Score 44 of the approximately 50 potential points, one per assignment, take the final exam, and you pass the course. You must score at last 40 points to avoid a grade reduction. The final exam at UM Law will consist of approximately 40 to 70 multi-state type questions drawn from the course content, so costly outside study aids may be of limited value.
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View Book Information
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