Contents
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Business Law
Rationale
Commercial Law or Business Law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. Commercial law regulates corporate contracts, hiring practices, and the manufacture and sales of consumer goods. Many countries have adopted civil codes which contain comprehensive statements of their commercial law. In the United States, commercial law is the province of both the Congress under its power to regulate interstate commerce, and the states under their police power. Efforts have been made to create a unified body of commercial law in the US: the most successful of these attempts has resulted in the general adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. Various regulatory schemes control how commerce is conducted, privacy laws, safety laws (i.e. OSHA in the United States) food and drug laws are some examples. See also
External links
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Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- explain the concept of law.
- understand his/her basic legal rights, obligations, responsibilities and apply them to everyday roles as workers, consumers, and citizens.
- understand the legal implications of various business transactions.
- demonstrate decision-making skills, critical thinking skills and apply them to the solving of frequently encountered legal situations.
- identify and explain the several techniques for creating law and resolving disputes.
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Teaching and Learning Resources
Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning. The nature and role of law and legal systems. Business Ethics. Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution
- The nature and role of law and legal systems
- The Australian legal system
- The Australian Constitution
- The Courts and Case Law
Lady Justice or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system (particularly in Western art). Her blindfold symbolises equality under the law through impartiality towards its subjects, the weighing scales represent the balancing of people's interests under the law, and |
Law[1] is a system of rules that is usually enforced through a set of institutions.[2] Law affects everyday life and society in a variety of ways. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivatives market. Property law defines rights and obligations related to buying, selling, or renting real property such as homes and buildings. Trust law applies to assets held for investment, such as pension funds. Tort law allows claims for compensation when someone or their property is harmed. But if the harm is criminalised, and the act is intentional, criminal law offers means to prosecute and punish the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for creating laws, protecting people's human rights, and electing political representatives, while administrative law allows ordinary citizens to challenge the way governments exercise power. International law regulates affairs between sovereign nation-states in everything from trade to the environment to military action. "The rule of law", wrote the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better than the rule of any individual."[3] Legal systems around the world elaborate legal rights and responsibilities in different ways. A basic distinction is made between civil law jurisdictions and systems using common law. Some countries base their law on religious scripts. Scholars investigate the nature of law through many perspectives, including legal history and philosophy, or social sciences such as economics and sociology. The study of law raises important questions about equality, fairness and justice, which are not always simple. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."[4] The most important institutions for law are the judiciary, the legislature, the executive, its bureaucracy, the military and police, the legal profession and civil society.
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Business ethics is a form of the art of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.
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In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism ) is increasing. [1] Simultaneously , pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and laws (e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles). [2] Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia descriptive approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically, interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have redefined their core values in the light of business ethical considerations (e.g. BP 's "beyond petroleum" environmental tilt). |
- Overview of issues in business ethics
- Business ethics in the field
- Religious views on business ethics
- Related disciplines
- Notes
- Bribery
- Business culture
- Business law
- Corporate behaviour
- Corporate crime
- Corporate social responsibility
- Corruption
- Ethicism
- Ethics
- Ethical consumerism
- Ethical code
- Fiduciary
- List of business ethics, political economy, and philosophy of business topics
- Management
- Optimism bias
- Political economy
- Strategic misrepresentation
- Strategic planning
- References
- EthicsWorld, the gateway to resources on corporate ethics and public sector governance.
- Podcast interview with Dov Seidman of LRN - Ethical Business Cultures at DishyMix
- Business Ethics in Knowledge@Wharton , the Wharton School's online business journal.
- Business ethics section from the website of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
- Economics and Economic Justice in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Commerce with a conscience. Dame Anita Roddick (The Body Shop founder) asks: Can business deliver social change?
- The Conference Board Ethics Program
- Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business Annual Business Ethics Forum
- Ethicism.com Quotes about business and consumer ethics.
- Journal of Business Ethics
- Grant Thornton IBR Corporate Social Responsibility: a necessity not a choice.
Torts and Strict Liability. Product Liability
Tutorials
- The Parliament and statute law
- The executive and law-making by administrative agencies
- Litigation, the legal process and alternative dispute resolution
- Legal method, research and reasoning
Readings
Tort law is a body of law that addresses and provides remedies for civil wrongdoings not arising out of contractual obligations.[1] A person who suffers legal damage may be able to use tort law to receive compensation from someone who is legally responsible, or liable, for those injuries. Generally speaking, tort law defines what constitutes a legal injury and establishes the circumstances under which one person may be held liable for another's injury. Tort law spans intentional and negligent acts.
For instance, Alice throws a ball and accidentally hits Brenda in the eye. Brenda may sue Alice for losses occasioned by the accident (e.g., costs of medical treatment, lost income during time off work). Whether or not Brenda wins her suit depends on if she can prove Alice engaged in tortious conduct. Here, Brenda would attempt to prove that Alice had a duty and failed to exercise the standard of care which a reasonable person would render in throwing the ball.
One of the main topics of the substance of tort law is determining the standard of care—a legal phrase that means distinguishing between when conduct is or is not tortious. Put another way, the big issue is whether a person suffers the loss from his own injury, or whether it gets transferred to someone else.
In much of the western world, the touchstone of tort liability is negligence. If the injured party cannot prove that the person believed to have caused the injury acted with negligence, at the very least, tort law will not compensate them. Tort law also recognizes intentional torts and strict liability, which apply to defendants who engage in certain actions.
In tort law, injury is defined broadly. Injury does not just mean a physical injury, such as where Brenda was struck by a ball. Injuries in tort law reflect any invasion of any number of individual interests. This includes interests recognized in other areas of law, such as property rights. Actions for nuisance and trespass to land can arise from interfering with rights in real property. Conversion and trespass to chattels can protect interference with movable property. Interests in prospective economic advantages from contracts can also be injured and become the subject of tort actions. A number of situations caused by parties in a contractual relationship may nevertheless be tort rather than contract claims, such as breach of fiduciary duty.
Tort law may also be used to compensate for injuries to a number of other individual interests that are not recognized in property or contract law, and are intangible. This includes an interest in freedom from emotional distress, privacy interests, and reputation. These are protected by a number of torts such as infliction, privacy torts, and defamation. Defamation and privacy torts may, for example, allow a celebrity to sue a newspaper for publishing an untrue and harmful statement about him. Other protected interests include freedom of movement, protected by the intentional tort of false imprisonment.
The equivalent of tort in civil law jurisdictions is delict.[2] The law of torts can be categorised as part of the law of obligations, but unlike voluntarily assumed obligations (such as those of contract, or trust), the duties imposed by the law of torts apply to all those subject to the relevant jurisdiction. To behave in 'tortious' manner is to harm another's body, property, or other rights. One who commits a tortious act is called a tortfeasor.[3] Torts is one of the American Bar Association mandatory first year law school courses.[4]
- Etymology
- Categories of torts
- Liability, defenses, and remedies
- Theory and reform
- Overlap with criminal law
- Tort by legal jurisdiction
Legal System. Intellectual Property and CyberLaw. Criminal Law and Procedures
Tutorials
- Crime: Concepts of control
- Concepts of liability
- Property and securities: Concepts of ownership
- Contracts: Concepts of agreement
Readings
The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law, common law and religious law. However, each country (see State law) often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system.
- World Legal Systems, Website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa
- Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems
- Factbook list of legal systems
- International & Foreign Law Community
- References
Legal aspects of computing are related to the over-lapping areas of law and computing.
The first one, historically, was Information Technology Law (or IT Law). (It should not be confused with the IT aspects of law itself, albeit there is an overlap between the two, as well).
IT Law is a set of legal enactments, currently in existence in several countries, which governs the digital dissemination of both (digitalized) information and software itself (see History of free and open-source software). IT Law covers mainly the digital information (including information security and electronic commerce) aspects and it has been described as "paper laws" for a "paperless environment".
Cyberlaw or Internet law is a term that encapsulates the legal issues related to use of the Internet. It is less a distinct field of law than intellectual property or contract law, as it is a domain covering many areas of law and regulation. Some leading topics include internet access and usage, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.
- Areas of law
- Jurisdiction
- Internet Law
- The Creation of Privacy in U.S. Internet Law
- Warren and Brandeis
- Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Test and emerging technology
- Privacy Act of 1974
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
- (1986) Electronic Communication Privacy Act
- (1994) Driver's Privacy Protection Act
- (1999) Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
- (2002) Homeland Security Act
- (2004) Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
- Legal enactments – examples
- Enforcement agencies
- Information Technology Lawyer
- Quotations
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey these laws. Criminal law is to be distinguished from civil law.
Business
Structures. Business Failure
Tutorials
- Alternative business structures
- The modern corporation
- Partnership
- Agency
- Licensing
- Franchising
- Business failure
Readings
Business failure, or colloquially going out of business, refers to a company ceasing its operations following its inability to make a profit or to bring in enough revenue to cover its expenses. The final step is always that the business runs out of cash. It has been said that running out of cash defines business failure [1]. This is the basis of the expression, "cash is king".
Consumer Protection and Fair Trading
Tutorials
- Consumer protection and fair trading
- Misleading and unconscionable conduct
- Advertising and sales promotion
- Supply of goods and services
Readings
Consumer Protection is a form of government regulation which protects the interests of consumers. For example, a government may require businesses to disclose detailed information about products—particularly in areas where safety or public health is an issue, such as food. Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights (that consumers have various rights as consumers), and to the formation of consumer organizations which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace.
Restrictive Trade Practices. Negotiable Instruments
Tutorials
- Competition and regulation
- Restrictive trade practices
- Trade designations and innovations
- Negotiable Instruments
Readings
A negotiable instrument is a specialized type of "contract" for the payment of money that is unconditional and capable of transfer by negotiation. As payment of money is promised later, the instrument itself can be used by the holder in due course frequently as money. Common examples include cheques, banknotes (paper money), and commercial paper. In the United States, the Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code covers the use of negotiable instruments except banknotes (money).
Consumer Credit. Insurance
Tutorials
Readings
Insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; the insured, or policyholder, is the person or entity buying the insurance policy. The amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage is called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.
The transaction involves the insured assuming a guaranteed and known relatively small loss in the form of payment to the insurer in exchange for the insurer's promise to compensate (indemnify) the insured in the case of a financial (personal) loss. The insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated.
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Credit is the provision of resources (such as granting a loan) by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately, thereby generating a debt, and instead arranges either to repay or return those resources (or material(s) of equal value) at a later date. It is any form of deferred payment.[1] The first party is called a creditor, also known as a lender, while the second party is called a debtor, also known as a borrower.
Movements of financial capital are normally dependent on either credit or equity transfers. Credit is in turn dependent on the reputation or creditworthiness of the entity which takes responsibility for the funds.
Credit need not necessarily be based on formal monetary systems. The credit concept can be applied in barter economies based on the direct exchange of goods and services, and some would go so far as to suggest that the true nature of money is best described as a representation of the credit-debt relationships that exist in society (Ingham 2004 p.12-19).
Credit is denominated by a unit of account. Unlike money (by a strict definition), credit itself cannot act as a unit of account. However, many forms of credit can readily act as a medium of exchange. As such, various forms of credit are frequently referred to as money and are included in estimates of the money supply.
Credit is also traded in the market. The purest form is the credit default swap market, which is essentially a traded market in credit insurance. A credit default swap represents the price at which two parties exchange this risk – the protection "seller" takes the risk of default of the credit in return for a payment, commonly denoted in basis points (one basis point is 1/100 of a percent) of the notional amount to be referenced, while the protection "buyer" pays this premium and in the case of default of the underlying (a loan, bond or other receivable), delivers this receivable to the protection seller and receives from the seller the par amount (that is, is made whole).
Privacy. E-business. International Business.
Tutorials
Readings
Electronic business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-business", may be defined as the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses [1].
Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM, in his book, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? attributes the term "e-Business" to IBM's marketing and Internet teams in 1996.
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.
Basically, electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information via computer networks, including the internet. EC can also be benifited from many perspective including business process, service, learning, collaborative, community. EC is often confused with e-business.
Employment
and industrial law. Business, Society and the Law
Tutorials
Readings
Labour law (also called labor law or employment law) is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. In Canada, employment laws related to unionized workplaces are differentiated from those relating to particular individuals. In most countries however, no such distinction is made. However, there are two broad categories of labour law. First, collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer and union. Second, individual labour law concerns employees' rights at work and through the contract for work. The labour movement has been instrumental in the enacting of laws protecting labour rights in the 19th and 20th centuries. Labour rights have been integral to the social and economic development since the Industrial Revolution. Employment standards are social norms (in some cases also technical standards) for the minimum socially acceptable conditions under which employees or contractors will work. Government agencies (such as the former U.S. Employment Standards Administration) enforce employment standards codified by labour law (legislative, regulatory, or judicial).
- 1 Labour law history
- Individual labour law
- Collective labour law
- International labour law
- National labour law
- Labour Legislation from 1911encyclopedia.org, Encyclopædia Britannica's 1911 edition
- California Labor Code
- HG.org States Labor Departments and Law
- Indian Labor Law
To tax (from the Latin taxo; "I estimate", which in turn is from tangō; "I touch") is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.
Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities. Taxes consist of direct tax or indirect tax, and may be paid in money or as its labour equivalent (often but not always unpaid labour). A tax may be defined as a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government […] a payment exacted by legislative authority."[1] A tax "is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority" and is "any contribution imposed by government […] whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name."[1]
The legal definition and the economic definition of taxes differ in that economists do not consider many transfers to governments to be taxes. For example, some transfers to the public sector are comparable to prices. Examples include tuition at public universities and fees for utilities provided by local governments. Governments also obtain resources by creating money (e.g, printing bills and minting coins), through voluntary gifts (e.g., contributions to public universities and museums),by imposing penalties (e.g,, traffic fines), by borrowing, and by confiscating wealth. From the view of economists, a tax is a non-penal, yet compulsory transfer of resources from the private to the public sector levied on a basis of predetermined criteria and without reference to specific benefit received.
In modern taxation systems, taxes are levied in money, but in-kind and corvée taxation are characteristic of traditional or pre-capitalist states and their functional equivalents. The method of taxation and the government expenditure of taxes raised is often highly debated in politics and economics. Tax collection is performed by a government agency such as Canada Revenue Agency, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States, or Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK. When taxes are not fully paid, civil penalties (such as fines or forfeiture) or criminal penalties (such as incarceration)[2] may be imposed on the non-paying entity or individual.
- Purposes and effects
- History
- Tax rates
- Economics of taxation
- Kinds of taxes
- Ad valorem
- Capital gains tax
- Consumption tax
- Corporation tax
- Currency transaction tax
- Environment Affecting Tax
- Excises
- Expatriation Tax
- Financial activities tax
- Financial transaction tax
- Income tax
- Inflation tax
- Inheritance tax
- Poll tax
- Property tax
- Retirement tax
- Sales tax
- Tariffs
- Toll
- Transfer tax
- Value Added Tax / Goods and Services Tax
- Wealth (net worth) tax
- Ethics of taxation
Recommended Texts
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Business,
Society and the Law, Third Edition
Andrew
Terry – University of New South Wales
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop |
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Jentz, Miller, Cross. West Publishing Co. (1999) ISBN 0-324-00086-3 Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop |
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ISBN: 0314885366 Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop |
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A Simplified Guide to the Language of Law by Stephen H. Gifis Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop
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Resources
- China Law Guide
- International Law guides
- Middle East Law and Governance
- On-Line Law Dictionaries
- "Lectric Law Lexicon
- CourtTV Law Center Glossary
- Shark Talk
- WISBAR Glossary of Legal Terms