units

LAW7493

Faculty of Law

18 September 2017 26 April 2024
Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Law
OfferedNot offered in 2014

Notes

For postgraduate Law discontinuation dates, please see http://www.law.monash.edu.au/current-students/postgraduate/pg-disc-dates.html
For postgraduate Law unit timetables, please see http://law.monash.edu.au/current-students/course-unit-information/timetables/postgraduate/index.html

Synopsis

Some of the topics to be explored include:

  • the procedural challenges associated with each of the above-mentioned types of negotiation
  • agency tensions for lawyers working in commercial contexts
  • in a field focused strongly on financial interests, does "relationship" matter?
  • designing deals for maximum value
  • managing the negotiation process "at the table"
  • strategic preparation and moves "away from the table" to set up the best conditions for negotiation
  • cross-border negotiations
  • multiparty dynamics and other challenges arising from specific types of negotiation such as corporate collapse, insolvency, class actions, negotiations with regulators, etc.
  • ethics in commercial negotiations
  • the impact of the legal system on commercial negotiation (and vice versa)
  • topics of interest to students based on their personal and professional experience

The unit will be delivered in a highly interactive fashion. Negotiation role-plays, small group exercises and discussions, and full-class discussions will be used extensively to explore themes introduced through interactive lectures, guest lectures and audio-visual input. Teaching in this advanced-level unit will presume that students have existing knowledge and experience of negotiation, although no specific units have been set as pre-requisites.

Outcomes

The objectives of this unit are to develop in students:

  1. A deeper understanding of negotiation in commercial contexts
  2. Improved skills for dealing with challenges in commercial negotiations
  3. Ongoing refinement of other knowledge and skills in the conflict resolution area.

Upon completion of the unit, students should be able to:

  1. Understand, describe and apply analytical frameworks relevant to commercial negotiations
  2. Apply and critically reflect upon appropriate skills for commercial negotiation
  3. Describe and debate some of the critical issues and major trends in the theory and practice of commercial negotiation.

Assessment

One research assignment (3,750 words): 50%
One take-home examination (3,750 words): 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Mr Shawn Whelan Personal ProfilePersonal Profile (http://law.monash.edu/staff/postgraduate/sess-swhelan-a.html)

Workload requirements

Students enrolled in this unit will be provided with 24 contact hours of seminars per semester whether intensive, semi-intensive, or semester-long offering. Students will be expected to do reading set for class, and to undertake additional research and reading applicable to a 6 credit point unit.