Research Assignment Topic -

Where a written contract exists, Australian courts do not and should not provide remedies for failure to fulfil verbal promises made during contract negotiations, unless those promises are included in the written contract.

Discuss the accuracy of this statement.

Your answer should include an explanation of the ‘Parol Evidence Rule' and the relevant exceptions, in particular partly written/partly oral contracts, as well as the concept of ‘collateral contracts' and how each relates to the above statement with reference to the relevant cases.

You must use a number of reputable academic sources outside of the prescribed text and follow the AGLC guide for footnotes and bibliography.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Please read the following instructions carefully before beginning your assignment and ensure that you follow ALL instructions below.

1. This is an individual research assignment - under no circumstances are students permitted to work together on the assignment. Students must use texts, scholarly articles and reputable online resources for their research, and these items, together with relevant cases and legislation, should be referred to in the assignment.

2. The assignment is to be 2,000 - 2,500 words in length. Students who fail to reach or exceed the word limit within the stated limit will have marks deducted. A word count (not including footnotes and bibliography) must be provided with hard copy of assignment.

3. The completed assignment must be submittedelectronically via the Assignment Dropbox/Turnitinlink provided on the unit's VU Collaborate page by the due date. A hard copy may also be required at the discretion of students' respective tutor.

4. If your tutor requires a hard copy of the assignment, it must be typed or printed on A4 paper with 1.5 or double spacing and leaving a left-hand margin wide enough for examiners' comments and corrections.

5. The assignment be submitted by week 8 of the semester(see Calendar on VU Collaborate for due date).Assignments submitted after the due date will incur late penalties of 10% of the total mark (3 marks) per day late, including weekends.

6. The completed assignment must be submitted with a scanned "Assignment Cover Sheet" (obtainable from the unit's VU Collaborate space) and properly completed in all respects. Students must retain a copy of their own assignment.

7. The assignment must include footnotes, a bibliography. Students are required to adhere to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC)for footnotes, references and bibliography and must not employ an alternative method (e.g., the Harvard method).

Marks will be deducted where students fail to adhere to the AGLC guidelines. Failure to include footnotes and bibliography in the required format may constitute breaches of the VU plagiarism policy.

8. It is all students' own responsibility to be aware of and to comply with the VU plagiarism policy (see VU Collaborate for further details). All assignments must be submitted electronically and will generate a Turnitin similarity report. Students must aim for less than 30% similarity. Assignments can be submitted on multiple occasions until the due date, so that students can amend the assignment as necessary in order to comply with plagiarism and originality requirements.

9. Assignments will be marked out of a possible 30 marks. Students are assessed on their demonstrated understanding of the issues, legal principles and relevant case law and legislation. Marks are also allocated specifically for breadth of research and compliance with the AGLC.

10. Students are expected to conduct research outside of the prescribed course materials and to use reputable academic sources. A minimum of 6 sources is expected. Be very careful if using Internetsources, as many of these are not of academic standard. Consult the VU library site and links provided on VU Collaborate for reputable Internet sources.Sites such as Wikipedia, lawteacher.net, student papers or notes available on the internet and similar are unacceptable.

11. Whilst there is no prescribed number of footnotes required, students are advised that at least 20 is desirable. More may be necessary in order to properly acknowledge sources in accordancewith the VU Academic Integritypolicy.