LAW7014

Secured finance and related transactions

Professor Catherine Walsh

Intensive
* First semester
* City

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should (1) have a thorough understanding of the Australian common law's conceptual framework of security interests; (2) be able to differentiate between transactions which create real security and those which do not and understand the legal and practical consequences of that classification; (3) have acquired an understanding of the principal common law (and some statutory) security interests and quasi-security devices, the rights that attach to them and their relative strengths and weaknesses; (4) have acquired a basic understanding of alternative legal regimes for security interests such as United States Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 and be able to understand and evaluate policy arguments for and against legislative reform of Australia's law of security interests; (5) be able to identify or find relevant principles, laws and precedents and apply them to resolve current problems relating to a range of security and quasi-security transactions; and (6) have further developed skills of legal research and writing, legal argument and oral presentation in an interactive seminar context.

Synopsis Concepts of security in the common law and legal consequences of this conceptual classification of transactions; current legal issues in a range of security and quasi-security transactions such as floating charges and fixed charges; priorities; title retention; debt subordination and negative pledge lending; guarantees; letters of comfort; letters of credit; and comparison with Article 9 of the US Uniform Commercial Code and proposals to reform Australian personal property security law.

Assessment Research paper (5000 words): 50%
* Class participation/presentation: 10%
* Final examination (2.5 hours): 40%

Texts

Goode R M Legal problems of credit and security 2nd edn, Sweet and Maxwell, 1988
Sykes E and Walker S The law of securities 5th edn, Law Book 1993