1. Construction Law and Practice
MSc/LLM

2. Module & Programme Leaders
Brodie McAdam
Module Leader
Paul Tracey
Programme Leader

4. Reminders
Use Chrome/Firefox for collaborate
Student Rep?

5. Recordings You can open the chat box in the recordings
There will usually be a “download” option for the recordings. I just forgot to click the box last week.

6. Today Overview of the module Look at how to access case law
Consider referencing
Set some more homework
Set homework on each other (!?)

8. Sessions
These ones are in the LLM/MSc module (where Paul’s induction was)

9. The Module
Looks at the basic contractual relationship in a construction context.
Assessment is by completion of a 6,000 word assessment, requiring you to answer to a complex legal scenario question.
Assessment – Now available. We will have a discussion about it in a few weeks time, but read it. Think about it as you look at the law.
The module is challenging and demands dedication, but student feedback says it is rewarding, but you need to commit time to it...

10. Performance In terms of last year:
Non submissions down from 10 the previous year, and failures down from 7 the previous year. Everyone who attempted the resit passed it.
Non submissions for variety of reasons – it is a challenge to fit study in with work.

11. Feedback
Last year’s Module Evaluation Questionnaire was filled in by 48 students (out of 81 registered at that point).
29 (60%) said they were “very satisfied” with the quality of the module, 17 (35%) were “mostly satisfied” and the remaining 2 (4%) were neutral.
Full details in the LLM/MSc module.
This year they are changing the name of the MEQ to “Module Review” and simplifying the questions.

12. What you have Background and Baseline Formation Implication
Learning Package 1
Background and Baseline
Learning Package 2
Formation
Learning Package 3
Implication
Learning Package 4
Scope & Change
Learning Package 5
Time & Loss
Learning Package 6
Termination
Disclaimer (!!) I am aiming to update these throughout this trimester, in particular to get them referenced correctly according to Harvard. Please do not imitate the referencing technique in these!!!!!!!!!!

13. Expectations and Preparation
The Learning Packages (LPs) contain a lot of reading, and references out to further reading.
Aim for quality and depth of understanding
Don’t panic if you haven’t read everything that is referred to in there.
More guidance as to targetted reading given in the sessions (i.e. to guide for next session).

14. Plan of attack Background and Baseline Formation
Learning Package 1
Background and Baseline
Learning Package 2
Formation
Spend some time with these over the next week
Follow up the links
Work out what you know and what you don’t know.

16. Last Week’s Homework Try and obtain full judgments of these two cases:
Vivergo Fuels Ltd v Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd [2013] EWHC 4030 (TCC)
West Faulkner Associates v Newham LBC, 71 B.L.R. 1
Where is the best place to start looking? What do the symbols following “Ltd” in the first citation signify? Why does the second citation contain no date?
Then find two sources (one per case, e.g. a book, a paper etc) which mention the cases. Write a sentence to summarise each source, and reference those sentences according to the Harvard referencing system.

17. Accessing Case Law Online demonstration
Access Westlaw via Library Search (from the Student Channel, Databases, “W”)
Search for case. If you know the name, pick the most unusual party name and search on that.
Examine citation. This tells you which Law Reports (if any) the case is in.
Most resources available in full text on Westlaw, but:
Building Law Reports are on i-law.

18. Finding Databases (Westlaw, i-Law, Practical Construction etc)

19. i-law Can access via Library Search but old fashioned way good too.
And also a search function

21. Referencing
Purpose?
Method?

22. So Purpose: Method: To demonstrate academic rigour
To show academic method
To acknowledge when you are building on the work of others
Method:
Very common type, Harvard style, an author/date method
In law the footnote OSCOLA is often used (you will be told if you are expected/permitted to use OSCOLA)

23. Side Effect…
If you don’t reference properly you could be accused of poor academic practice or, even worse, Academic Misconduct, which can result in you failing the module, or, in certain cases, being expelled from the University

24. Example
I have an example of a response to last year’s homework to help demonstrate some aspects of referencing.
I use it as a springboard to talk about various aspects of referencing. Task was
“… find a book, or journal paper, which mentions Peak Construction (Liverpool) Ltd v McKinney Foundations Ltd (1976) 1 BLR 111 and write a sentence about what it says, and reference that sentence according to the Harvard referencing system.”

26. Good points
Clear attempts to identify the source of information referred to.
Where direct quotes have been used, these are placed inside brackets.
The introductory sentence does pretty much meet the brief, subject to the referencing issue.

27. Points to ponder
The brief asked for a sentence about what the source says, referenced according to Harvard, rather than a big chunk of quoted text. Avoid big chunks of quoted text.
Harvard uses no footnotes, ever.
This is an attempt at OSCOLA, which only ever uses footnotes.
The reference itself is not complete or accurate – it does not describe a resource, and so it would take ages to track down where it came from…
The reference to Westlaw is a step towards what you might do for an ebook, but it doesn’t quite work.

28. Investigation…

29. If you are going to use a direct quote you need a transition into it
This is just text showing first where page breaks are in the physical version. The “77” is a paragraph number, and if only one para is being quoted there’s no need to include it in the quote (it appears in the reference)
One consideration of the case is as follows:
These bits are within the quoted text, so despite them not being referenced according to any academic convention, they remain unaltered, if needed.
(Lim Ting Guan v Goodlink Enterprise, 2009, para 77).
Not italics
Italics

30. To meet the brief…
This sort of meets the brief, but is not the most incisive response that could have been written. I am waiting for that from you…

31. Harvard Reference List
For cases, you have a separate case table (after your main one):
Lim Ting Guan v Goodlink Enterprise (2009) Const. L.J (1)
Peak Construction (Liverpool) Ltd v McKinney Foundations Ltd (1976) 1 BLR 111
The first one is actually a tricky one to reference properly – it’s a case report, but in a law journal.

32. Hints
As you can see, referencing is technically tricky, but really just needs a bit of patience, and time spent with guidance and examples.
Aim of academic assessment is to demonstrate understanding and application of theory (law) to facts.
Writing your own words. Create your own arguments around the law you expound (and reference).
Best advice: NEVER copy and paste anything into your work unless it is in quotations and followed immediately by a reference (with page number).
Do not try and build an assessment out of a patchwork of cut and paste.

33. Referencing Support

35. Practice…
Formative homework – a task which will, hopefully, kill not one, not two, but three, birds with one stone…

36. Bird 1
Find case law, understand citations, reflect on and practise referencing.

37. Bird 2
Explore some issues relevant to your “proper” assignment, and practise more referencing …

38. Bird 3 Practise submitting assignments.
If you mess up the “proper” submission, you might get a late penalty, or even lose the chance to submit at all.

39. So,

40. NB…
Turn it in, text matching Detection tool…

41. Upload/Referencing Task
Please aim to do it by 16:00 Friday 20 October
Feedback will be given (if you submit by then), but the task does not form part of your overall marks for the module; it’s for you to practise.

43. Distance Learning Tendency towards isolation leading to…
Demotivation leading to…
Termination.
Not what we want!
So time spent on getting to know each other is never wasted…

44. What is a wiki? Collaborative website creation
Focus: on site content not appearance
Fairly easy – no “programming” required
“Classic” wiki, anyone on web can add, edit, delete anything
Extensive back-up trails
Variants – open to world but editable only by registered users etc etc
Blackboard

45. What good for us? Developing cohort knowledge
Finding out about each other
Maybe discovering you are local to a fellow student or two…

46. How
Click here…
…then here
…then here

47. Then…
name here…
…then save it
…then type here

48. Wiki Homework Add a page of your own this week.
Save it with your name (first and last name)
Play around with how to do it
Don’t worry if things go wrong!
Include, e.g. where you are from [roughly!], your background, what you are interested in achieving from this course, anything else you feel like sharing.

50. Summary
Read and work out from LP1 and LP2 – particularly re contract formation (topic of next week’s session)
Look at legal referencing resources
Make a start on the referencing task
Do wiki profile
Get registered (if you are not)