business law assignment help online

business law assignment help online

The Role of Business Law in Ensuring Corporate Compliance and Ethical Practices

1. Introduction to Business Law and its Significance in the Corporate World

Presently, countries are trying to balance the faith in laissez-faire activity with the belief that social justice must be done to all sections of people who are going to be affected by the operation of business activity in the market. One cannot deny the fact that law is a part and parcel of the daily corporate management environment. Many principles of law can be seen to be directing or encouraging business behavior. Thus, companies decide which markets to enter or exit, they may choose not to deal with certain classes of customers, and they put in place different management systems and controls on how business is conducted. These instructions are advisory, although not implementing these may have legal consequences. Companies tend to lead their affairs in a particular manner, not because of legality, but because it is proper and ethical. At the same time, companies need to be seen as good corporate citizens, not as organizations that are repeatedly breaking the law for personal gain.

Business law, or commercial law, is concerned with the functioning of business activities, understanding the rational bodies engaged in the process, and the ethical and moral responsibilities of the market players. Additionally, it works as a guideline for business decision-making. It lays down principles that no businessman could afford to ignore while doing business in the marketplace. It cannot look upon any business activity as an isolated event. It has to consider the well-being of the whole society in which the corporate organization or a business entity functions. The pillar of business law is the basic principle of fair play or laissez-faire; the state does not interfere in the free course of business. With this, new business activities can be expanded, and new ventures can be created.

2. Key Legal Principles and Concepts in Business Law

The core principles of such laws are contracts, corporations, torts, intellectual property, and antitrust. Corporations are governed by their own set of laws and regulations, constituting the corporate stockholders, and as such, they are able to create higher levels of capital. The laws and regulations governing corporations are vast and some of the most complex to manage. However, not only domestic business law but also international business law and trade involve these principles and concepts. More significantly, the category of international law – usually a prohibitive sphere – is considerably influenced by business and commercial transactions. While we discuss some of these principles, we also help students appreciate and understand their significance in the national and international affairs of a business corporation.

Business law is a broad subject encompassing numerous legal principles and concepts. While a majority of these laws come under the purview of the government – and largely pertain to institutional organization as well as regulation – some of the core legal structures come directly under business law. These commonly include acts, contracts, and charters, and the principles used in these legal structures can be loosely defined as the central frameworks that guide business law. In day-to-day business, these principles also guide business organizations and corporations towards better corporate governance by providing a legal framework to resolve negative compliance. Such principles are the structure of truly effective business organizations. Moreover, an understanding of these key legal principles and concepts is crucial to business so that business corporations can discharge their obligations to key stakeholders, including the society at large.

3. Corporate Compliance and Ethical Practices: A Legal Perspective

In corporate law and criminal proceedings, companies and corporate actors have to account for their conduct in the light of legal norms. Based upon the public/private law dichotomy, legal orders typically single out a few corporate structures, activities, and decisions that must comply with mandatory laws, typically protected by public authorities, and a whole set of other activities where corporate actors can basically do or choose whatever is not forbidden. Corporate criminal law and compliance obligations rely on a similar assumption. Corporations and corporate actors have quite a broad discretion on how they organize their business operations. At the same time, however, they are required to comply with a set of distinct and specific legal rules that closely determine how, by whom, and under what conditions certain activities, decisions, or other events must be organized and made compliant with this law (or revisited if they are not).

It is not easy to distinguish between corporate compliance and ethical practices, and it is not easy to claim that corporations, even if they are chartered and housed as formal, legal entities, are to be considered utterly different from the persons who ‘carry on commercial activities in the form of a business’. From both a moral and economic perspective, they are assumed to act as good ‘citizens’. From a legal business perspective, such an approach is usually augmented and firmly rooted in numerous legal rules, principles, and standards, regardless of whether they are intended to ensure corporate compliance or to foster ethical businesses. It is assuming this economic, moral, and legal area of business is highly integrated.

4. Case Studies and Practical Applications of Business Law in the Business Environment

This section of the text is unique in that it offers students practical, real-world examples of how the material in the text applies to the business environment. When studying business law, application discussions of principle and policy answers to business dilemmas provide the reader with a clear understanding of how to avoid legal problems and what remedies might be available, and also how to handle ethical questions and to mitigate or even avoid a problem before it arises. This unorthodox, informative approach can help prevent legal and ethical compliance issues by learning how to craft policy and legal strategies in real-world businesses.

In each chapter, there is a section with one or more readings. This is where you can see some of the scenarios that were written by businesses for purposes of study. You can consider each scenario and then approach it by discussing the legal as well as the ethical issues that are present. The idea is to talk about the facts of each scenario and then apply the ethical and legal principles from the class as well as the text to discuss how each fact fits with the principle and what recommendation you might have as an attorney or as a decision-maker in a business. We will be doing this type of work in class as well but the discussions in class are going to be less formal. You should consider reading the scenarios and then taking notes on what you think about the situation, what the facts tell you and what would be a sound legal and ethical way to consider the action.

Case studies and examples

5. Future Trends and Developments in Business Law

Business ethics are an intrinsic part of corporate and governmental decision making. As such, they can be expected not only to address compliance, but also the ethical component of decisions. This turns business ethics from an aspect of cost-saving and gate-keeping to an element of strategic advantage – another factor that tends to endanger corporate governance theory, which is sometimes based on the notion of a single and comprehensive compliance culture within the company. Ethics are difficult to control legally, as they are not based on authority or agreements. As a consequence, the monitoring-based corporate governance systems based on contracts, audits, and statutory standards aimed at improved transparency may need to reconsider the object of their control.

The enforcement and consequences of corporate misconduct – including the role of criminal law and regulators – may lead to a policy shift in favor of criminal sanctions. As a result, company leadership may have to pay more attention to the potential consequences of corporate misconduct. At the same time, the current trend toward holding legal entities criminally responsible has raised fundamental questions. Ensuring the level of corporate compliance that keeps beyond reproach in terms of transparency and financial legitimacy may become increasingly challenging. The dynamic evolution of ethical standards and expectations prompted rapid shifts in regulations resulting in a multitude of emerging compliance guidelines. The near future may well see a further proliferation of these rules and regulations. Rationalizing and coordinating these emerging expectations may become a future task in enhancement of coherent corporate compliance – with diminishing returns given the speed and uncertainty of new rule-making. Consequently, corporate compliance enforcement may begin to focus on larger, more established firms, leaving smaller firms alone.