Contract and Consumer Law

OBJECTIVE
Students will better-understand their relationship to contract law. Specifically, this lesson will explain how not being at the age of majority impacts rights and responsibilities when entering into a contract.

PROCEDURE
1.Ask students if they consider themselves, as a group, to have the same abilities as adults to evaluate their decisions. Have them justify their positions.

2. Move discussion of young people and their decision-making abilities into reading Young People and Contracts.

KEY QUESTIONS
• Are the provisions for young people entering into contracts fair for young people? Are they fair for adults who want to enter into contracts with young people?
• Do you, as a young person, think you are mature enough to understand entering into a contract?
• Imagine that the law in Saskatchewan was changed so that young people were treated the same as adults in matters of contract law. How would this influence society’s general belief that young people should be provided special protections in matters of criminal law? [Only classes who have already studied Criminal Law and the Youth Criminal Justice Act should enter into a brief discussion of this question.]

3. Assign Young People and Contracts case studies.