Indian Case Laws

Free Online Course on Interpretation of Contracts

In this course, learn how terms of a contract is interpreted by various Courts and arbitrators in India and how a smart lawyer should be drafting them so as to avoid any protracted litigation and disputes.

The course is intended for law students and budding lawyers desirous of honing their contract drafting skills and brushing up their understanding of crucial terms of a contract and their interpretation.

About the Course

The idea of drafting an agreement with a given template or term sheet and turning it into the execution copy, is not as easy as it seems. There are several ingredients which goes into the raw term sheet or template before the final recipe is ready to be served to the client. Some of the most important ingredients which you would be needing here are, your knowledge and understanding of the subject, experience, foresight of an eagle and above all, how a Court or an Arbitrator is going to interpret those terms, in case the contract ends up in the Court room desk of a Judge or an Arbitrator. To avoid any protracted litigation and consequent loss of one’s reputation, a smart lawyer would never draft a contract with loose ends, i.e. a contract which may be subject to several interpretations, in particular the one which may prejudice the interest of his/her client.

This course explores the rules for interpretation of contracts which the Courts and Arbitration Tribunals in India and common law countries often use to read and interpret the terms of a contract. The Course intends to help you develop an understanding of the interpretative value of different terms of a contract, so that you can use them as backdrop while you are drafting an agreement. This can help you sharpen your drafting skills and avoid any messy situation leading to loss of your reputation as a lawyer. The Course is based on leading judgments of Supreme Court and various High Courts as well as well established

COURSE STRUCTURE

Introduction

Chapter-1: Fundamental Rules for Interpretation of Contracts

Chapter-2: Interpretative Value of Pre-contractual Documents/Draft Agreements

Chapter-3: Importance of Deleted Words

Chapter-4: Implied Terms of Contract and Business Efficacy Test

Chapter-5: Specific Provision vis-a-vis General Provision

Chapter-6: Harmonious Construction of Contractual Terms

Chapter-7: Placement of Clauses in a Contract: Does it matter?

Chapter-8: Arbitrator vs. Judge – Extent of Court’s Interference with Arbitrator’s Interpretation

ELIGIBILITY

Any law student who is in the 3rd-5th year of B.A./B.Sc/B.Com LL.B course from a recognized law school or university;
Any law student in the 2nd-3rd year of three year LL.B course from a recognized law college or university;

SELECTION CRITERIA & RULES

A total of 35 candidates will be selected from the applications received on first come first serve basis.
The selected applicants will be notified latest by October 20, 2014.
Once the application is accepted the selected candidates will be required to submit a scanned copy of their identity card along with their CV before the course commences. Failure to do the same may result in cancellation of their application.
A candidate discontinuing the course , failing to submit any assignment, or take the evaluation test will be automatically disqualified from the course.
Upon successful completion of the Course, the candidates clearing the evaluation test will be issued a ‘Certificate of Completion’ within one week from the date of declaration of results.

COURSE FORMAT

The course will primarily consist of study material in the form of separate chapters and assignments. You may be required to devote 5-6 hours of study in a week. The Course is intended to be completed in a span of four weeks starting from November 3rd, 2014. At the end of the course there will be a surprise evaluation test based on which the candidates will be issued a course completion certificate.