Business law summary
General legal issues 1............................................................................................................. 2
General legal issues 2............................................................................................................. 6
General legal issues 3........................................................................................................... 10
General legal issues 4........................................................................................................... 14
Property law lecture 1............................................................................................................ 16
,General legal issues 1
The three R’s of law
1. Rights (are essentially freedoms)
2. Responsibilities (duty of care (legal term))
3. Reasonableness (to take into account the other persons legitimate interests)
Rights and responsibilities must be balanced, the law expects everyone to behave
reasonably.
In law interests means you have a stake at something → a teacher has money at
stake in a school
● Why are game rules not rules of law? → the rules of the game you play only
apply to the people that play the game when they play the game. The rules of law
apply to all people every time everywhere.
What is the rule of law:
Rechtsstaat: the people that make the rules of law are bound to follow those rules themselves
What is the purpose of law:
To regulate the behavior of people and organizations in society
What is business law:
Legal rules that apply to businesses. Business is an organization that wants to make profit.
Business is an economic term. A business’ goal is to make profit. A company has 2 types of
stake holders:
1. Internal stakeholders:
- Employees
- Manager
- owners
2. External stake holders:
- Suppliers
- Society
- Government
- Creditors
- Shareholders
- Customers
, Legal systems:
2 main systems: common law and civil law
Common law countries (case law): US, UK, canada, australia, india (common law started in
England)
Civil law countries (codified statues): france, portugal, the netherlands (civil law started in
Rome)
3 differences between common law and civil law:
1. history/ origins
2. Development, in the common law mostly developed through case law (court decisions),
whereas in civil law countries codified statues were more important here.
3. Precedents, this is a technical legal word for earlier court decisions. In common law
countries case law was the main source of law. Judges had to make decisions, they had
to explain their decisions and give very good reasons for their decisions. The decisions
of higher courts would bind lower courts. Lower courts would have to follow the
decisions of the higher court, this is called binding precedent. Civil law countries on the
other hand, there is no such thing as binding precedent, only persuasive precedent. That
means if a higher court takes a decision, the lower court would be advised to take the
similar decision if the case is similar, but it is not mandatory, because in civil law
countries written law is more important. so, they are allowed to deviate if they think that
is in the interest of other parties.
Areas of law:
Two main branches, regardless of the legal systems:
1. Public law: law applies to the relationship between an individual and the government
e.g. criminal law, tax law. Rules that are imposed on us. Gives the state a lot of power.
2. Private law: law apples to relationships between individuals in a legal system e.g.
contract law and employment law. It concerns parties that are more or less equal.
→ each of these branches of law have a number of areas of law:
Public law Private law
Tax law Contract law
Criminal law Property law
Human rights Corporate law
Administrative law Employment law
Constitutional law Liability law
What is law:
General legal issues 1............................................................................................................. 2
General legal issues 2............................................................................................................. 6
General legal issues 3........................................................................................................... 10
General legal issues 4........................................................................................................... 14
Property law lecture 1............................................................................................................ 16
,General legal issues 1
The three R’s of law
1. Rights (are essentially freedoms)
2. Responsibilities (duty of care (legal term))
3. Reasonableness (to take into account the other persons legitimate interests)
Rights and responsibilities must be balanced, the law expects everyone to behave
reasonably.
In law interests means you have a stake at something → a teacher has money at
stake in a school
● Why are game rules not rules of law? → the rules of the game you play only
apply to the people that play the game when they play the game. The rules of law
apply to all people every time everywhere.
What is the rule of law:
Rechtsstaat: the people that make the rules of law are bound to follow those rules themselves
What is the purpose of law:
To regulate the behavior of people and organizations in society
What is business law:
Legal rules that apply to businesses. Business is an organization that wants to make profit.
Business is an economic term. A business’ goal is to make profit. A company has 2 types of
stake holders:
1. Internal stakeholders:
- Employees
- Manager
- owners
2. External stake holders:
- Suppliers
- Society
- Government
- Creditors
- Shareholders
- Customers
, Legal systems:
2 main systems: common law and civil law
Common law countries (case law): US, UK, canada, australia, india (common law started in
England)
Civil law countries (codified statues): france, portugal, the netherlands (civil law started in
Rome)
3 differences between common law and civil law:
1. history/ origins
2. Development, in the common law mostly developed through case law (court decisions),
whereas in civil law countries codified statues were more important here.
3. Precedents, this is a technical legal word for earlier court decisions. In common law
countries case law was the main source of law. Judges had to make decisions, they had
to explain their decisions and give very good reasons for their decisions. The decisions
of higher courts would bind lower courts. Lower courts would have to follow the
decisions of the higher court, this is called binding precedent. Civil law countries on the
other hand, there is no such thing as binding precedent, only persuasive precedent. That
means if a higher court takes a decision, the lower court would be advised to take the
similar decision if the case is similar, but it is not mandatory, because in civil law
countries written law is more important. so, they are allowed to deviate if they think that
is in the interest of other parties.
Areas of law:
Two main branches, regardless of the legal systems:
1. Public law: law applies to the relationship between an individual and the government
e.g. criminal law, tax law. Rules that are imposed on us. Gives the state a lot of power.
2. Private law: law apples to relationships between individuals in a legal system e.g.
contract law and employment law. It concerns parties that are more or less equal.
→ each of these branches of law have a number of areas of law:
Public law Private law
Tax law Contract law
Criminal law Property law
Human rights Corporate law
Administrative law Employment law
Constitutional law Liability law
What is law:
