2022 Contract Law Question 5 — LawShortcut Independent Model Answer
A reform essay requiring two of three topics. This answer argues that the postal rule is an anachronism resting on a fiction — worth abolishing, but not urgently, since the offeror can exclude it — while the framework for damages is fundamentally sound and needs only two targeted repairs: remoteness after The Achilleas, and the narrowness of non-pecuniary loss after Murray v Budds.
Scenario summary
Question 5 is the paper’s reform essay. There are no facts and nobody to advise: what is wanted is a position on whether the present law should be changed, argued through decided cases rather than asserted.
Three subjects are offered and candidates must take any two: (a) the postal rule in acceptance; (b) duress in contract formation; (c) the calculation of damages for breach.
This model answer takes (a) the postal rule and (c) damages, the cleanest contrast the paper allows: a narrow anachronism with an obvious cure, against a framework that works but carries two unsettled disputes at its edges. Each is worth roughly ten of the 25 marks.
Candidates are asked to take any two of those three subjects and comment on whether the law governing them stands in need of reform, illustrating the answer with relevant case law.
This is a LawShortcut scenario summary written in our own words. For the exact examined wording, use the official King’s Inns paper linked above.
What this model answer covers
Issues and structure addressed in the full LawShortcut model answer:
- Reading the Question — how a reform essay differs from an issue-spot
- Part (a) — The postal rule: a Victorian default surviving into a digital era
- Part (c) — Damages: a sound framework with two unstable edges
- Conclusion — what each defect costs, and who can cure it
- Where the 25 marks live — allocation across the two chosen topics
- Common ways to lose marks
- Authorities relied on
- The reusable answer structure
Read the complete LawShortcut model answer to this question — reading the question, issue spotting, the applicable law, application to the facts and conclusions — inside the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault.
Part of the King’s Inns Contract Law Model Answer Vault — 30 independently authored model answers, 2020—2025.
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