business law homework help

business law homework help

Exploring Key Concepts in Business Law

1. Introduction to Business Law

Why Study Law? The corporate officer, entrepreneur, or business manager in private business or in a public corporation exercises vast powers as an economic controller and moral agent of society. The successful discharge of these powers has a profound effect upon law, society, and politics. The benefits which should accrue to any manager, as a result of an understanding of how their actions are influenced by statutory law, are many. Thus a synopsis of the field would be to familiarize the business manager with the basic principles and practices of statutory law.

The Legal Environment. Our democratic society is based upon a system of laws – some of which are derived from the United States and our state constitutions. They provide for a framework of government – and they regulate human and business activity. The purpose of this material is to introduce you to the law as it relates to business. Our goal is to be exposed to the major legal concepts or principles of law that you will be dealing with. We do not propose that you commit these principles to memory. However, you should acquaint yourself with the concepts of business law – and then “detail out” your understanding by reading and discussing the accompanying laws and legal text. Our system of laws has evolved over a great many years. Our present legal system – and law-making body – emanates from England. The many and various customs of the different tribes and peoples of England were assimilated in time and taken to the different tribes and locales. It is interesting to note that, in their time, the laws were NOT written – they were “customs” – traditions. The English system of laws, and they form the foundation of our legal system, is founded upon the Common Law System – a system derived from court cases. We will discuss this further as we analyze the many sources of law and speak about the doctrines of stare decisis.

This topic is on Business Law – a very important subject for entrepreneurs and managers as they must learn to work within a legal framework provided by the government. We are moving now into specific legal topics that will pertain to every business and entrepreneurial endeavor.

2. Legal Entities and Business Structures

Legal entities used by business: A person who wants to form a business is not required to start a company or a corporation, but there are rules for all types of businesses. Individuals who do not form one of the companies are considered sole proprietors, partnerships (including joint ventures), or LLCs. The primary advantages of a sole proprietorship and partnership are ease of entry, control, freedom of operation, retention of profits, and simple taxation. A corporation may be a nonprofit or for-profit, private or public, and domestic or foreign. A corporation is a separate entity and the owners are not personally responsible for the corporation’s debts. Corporations can be taxed as corporations or the income may be taxed to the corporation or to the owners, at their option (S corporation). A limited liability company (LLC) is a hybrid legal structure that provides limited liability protection and features of a corporation and a partnership. The domestic entity has a choice to be taxed as a corporation, S corporation, partnership, or as a single-member entity.

The form of the business will determine both the rules that are applied to that type of business and the steps required to form that business. Some businesses start as a sole proprietorship, and as they grow and gather owners and employees, they remain a sole proprietorship. Some businesses start as one type of business and then evolve into other types of businesses. For instance, Michele’s business started as a sole proprietorship and evolved into an LLC. It is important to understand at least the basic concepts of liability, characteristics, and consequences of various types of business entities.

3. Contracts and Commercial Law

Contracts: An agreement, supported by consideration, which is, for certain kinds of transactions, enforceable in court. Agreements that are not supported by consideration are known as “gratuitous.” Contract Breach: The failure, without a legal excuse, to fulfill a duty in a promise in a contract. Remedies: The possible legal solutions for a breach of contract. The primary purpose of a contract is to provide the parties to a transaction with legal enforceability and reliability. When our comprehension of contract law is expanded to incorporate aspects of commercial law, it becomes evident that such coverage can extend to the sale of goods, a wide range of transactions, from sales transactions to leases and bailments. The crucial undertakings here include the negotiation of instruments and the importance of the law relied upon to secure the interest of lenders and creditors with collateral (security interests). Commercial paper and security are basically specialized aspects of the law of contracts and personal property concerning sales transactions and secured transactions, respectively. As such, they are both within the basic structure of the law of contracts and personal property.

Business is conducted through transactions, which range from part-time employment in a restaurant to the multi-million-dollar financing of an international enterprise. Business people need to know the basic legal principles governing contracts and commercial transactions, which is the essential focus of Business Law I. The required elements of a legally enforceable contract, its breach, and the remedies the law provides are the primary concepts around which this area of law is built.

4. Intellectual Property and Competition Law

Intellectual property is a wide category of property concerned with anything that is the creation of the mind. As such, IPs include inventions, literary works, symbols, images, etc. Intellectual property law is important not only to protect the product created by the human mind but also gives a fair return to the business person. It is important for businessmen to safeguard the product of their mundane efforts, imagination, and economic resources they have suffered before sharing them with others. A breach of intellectual property rights is called infringement. Infringement implies the theft of or unauthorized use of intellectual property such as copyright materials, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Defamation and infringement matters are heard at a state or territory level, but parties will generally consent to the court where they lodge their defamation claim.

Business law protects anything created by a business person from being unfairly used by its competitor. This is called protection of intellectual properties (IPs). The legal rights that arise from IP are called intellectual property rights (IPRs) and can be divided into four basic types: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Although they confer legal rights that are similar to those found in property laws, intellectual property laws are designed to prevent unfair competition in the marketplace. One of the main reasons the law of unfair competition exists is that it desires to level the playing field for competitors by helping competitors to ensure valuable commercial opportunities. While the laws of unfair competition are concerned with leveling the playing field, another set of laws are intended to maintain competition itself at an adequate level of fairness. This area of business law is called competition law. Competition laws are those statutes and regulations intended to promote fair competition and alleviate barriers to fair trade.

5. Ethical Considerations in Business Law

Consideration of ethics as an area of business applies to many dimensions of thought and should not be regarded in a singular sense as is typically practiced in the study of philosophy. As in other professional fields, when an individual studies business law, their primary focus is on how to apply it in a professional setting. As individuals move within this space, they may encounter certain ethical issues that arise in this professional context. Business law professionals typically spend most of their time discussing case law, statutes, and the like. They are often not involved in the dynamics of corporate practice or the profoundly ethical problems that are associated with them. When ethical problems do come up, they often take the form of a somewhat detached, idealized discussion of the professional limits of someone practicing law. A variety of ethical issues might arise in a legal business context, including potential conflicts of interest, client consent, and compliance with the obligations of the rest of their profession. While this behavior inevitably occurs in the legal industry, the legal profession places a high priority on the moral obligations involved.

Ethical issues are pervasive in business law. As primary stakeholders in the organization, management and employees owe ethical duties to the organization to act responsibly and in the best interest of the firm. The same is true of government regulators when adopting regulations or enforcing the law. Ethical behavior in business law is discussed in a concurrent section of this book. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of ethical behavior in business, that section is presented here. This section covers such topics as ethical decision making, creating a culture of ethics in an organization, and enhancing ethics through corporate social responsibility.