Essential Business MOOCs For January

ContractsX: From Trust to Promise to Contract

School: Harvard

Platform: EdX

Registration Link: ContractsX: From Trust to Promise to Contract

Start Date: January 8, 2015 (7 Weeks)

Workload: 2-3 Hours Per Week

Instructor: Charles Fried

Credentials: Want to learn the ins and outs of contract law? You won’t find a better guide than Charles Fried, who has taught the course for over 35 years at Harvard Law School. Along with being an academic, Fried is a practitioner who has argued contract cases in court. In fact, Fried was Solicitor General for four years in the Reagan administration, along with serving as an Associate Justice in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts for four years. He has also authored several books and over 30 journal articles, in addition to teaching courses in Commercial Law, Torts, Labor Law, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Law. 

Graded: Students will receive a certificate for completing their assignments and abiding by the honor code.

Description: Designed for non-lawyers, this introductory course reviews how contracts are made and work – and the remedies available when a side doesn’t meet the terms. The course also covers “intent to create legal relations, legality and morality, and the distinction between gifts and bargains, along with common pitfalls like “one-sided promises, mistake, fraud, and frustration.” Relying heavily on real cases, this course teaches students what to look for and what to expect in developing and executing contracts.

Review: No reviews.

Additional Note: To learn about Copyright law, check out Harvard’s Copyrights course, which begins on January 12.