Authentic assessment in contract law: legal drafting

Authentic assessment in contract law: legal drafting

Legal drafting is a vital skill for lawyers and thus it is important for law students to be exposed to drafting throughout their degree. One of the first year courses most suited to this exercise is contract law. This papers discusses the inclusion of a drafting exercise as part of the contract law assessment over four years in terms of the authenticity of the assessment task and feedback from students about the exercise. A sample exercise is included in the paper. These exercises required students to draft clauses to be inserted into a contract or draft a short contract and this work demonstrated an application of the material being covered in class. Initially, this assessment was set as a largely independent exercise with students being directed to relevant resources. It was found that additional scaffolding was needed and each year more extensive resources were provided. Although the students who participated in the survey were predominantly students who had passed the course, the majority each year believed that it was a useful exercise, of value for their future careers and of more practical relevance than other forms of assessment.