Unit I BL discussion

BBA 3210, Business Law 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Examine the legal system in the United States as it pertains to business. 1.1 Identify the primary sources of law for the legal system in the United States. 1.2 Describe the two court systems in the United States. 1.3 Compare the options available in alternative dispute resolution.

Course/Unit Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

1.1 Unit Lesson Chapter 1 Unit I Assessment

1.2 Unit Lesson Chapter 1 Unit I Assessment

1.3

Unit Lesson Chapter 3 Article: “Recent Developments in Alternative Dispute Resolution” Article: “Roberts Rules; The Supreme Court” Unit I Assessment

Required Unit Resources Chapter 1: An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Dynamic Business Law Chapter 3: The U.S. Legal System and Alternative Dispute Resolution In order to access the following resources, click the links below. Greenspan, D., Brooks, F., & Walton, J. (2019). Recent developments in alternative dispute resolution. Tort

Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal, 54(2), 305–328. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=asn&AN=137859258&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Roberts rules; the Supreme Court. (2020, February 29). The Economist, 434(9183), 22–23.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616940002/GIC?u=oran95108&sid=GIC&xid=8a6baf5d

Unit Lesson In a democracy like the United States, the people allow the government to make certain rules and regulations that govern the conduct of everyone in the community. Those rules and regulations collectively called laws describe what is required, what is allowed, and what is prohibited. The laws that govern commercial relationships, relationships that are intended to result in a profit, are referred to as business laws.

Business Law There are two important things to remember about business law. First, while we may tend to think of businesses that must be aware of business laws as big business, the businesses that are subject to business laws include not only big businesses but also small businesses and even one-person businesses. Almost

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE

Introduction to Business Law and the Legal System in the United States

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every aspect of any business is impacted by business laws. Financial dealings involve contract law and government regulations. The human resources function requires compliance with discrimination laws and labor laws. Purchasing encompasses contract law and sales law. Research and development activities will hopefully lead to intellectual property considerations. Marketing efforts must follow a variety of governmental regulations. The second thing to remember about business law is that it is not really a separate area of the law but a recognition that various areas of the general law have meaningful application to business activities. For example, intellectual property law has become an important consideration for businesses seeking to protect things that they have invented or links that they have established between a phrase or image and the products they sell, but someone who writes a book with no particular intention of making a profit from that book can still establish their intellectual property rights on that book. Classifications Different aspects of law can be classified in a number of ways. For example, law can be classified as either civil or criminal. Civil law applies to relationships between private entities and government, but criminal law concerns whether behavior has violated laws and whether violations should be punished in some way. Business law can include both civil and criminal law, but, in this course, we will concentrate on the civil law aspects of business law. Sources of Law When exploring business law, it is important to understand where law originated and how law develops. In a democracy, there are several major sources of law, including the U.S. Constitution; federal, state, and local statutes; administrative regulations; case or common law; and a few other important but not as prominent sources of law. The U.S. Constitution established the structure of the government of the United States, authorizing and limiting the powers of the federal and state governments, but it also created substantive laws and designated how laws were to be created and enforced. In all legal systems created by constitutions, those constitutions are recognized as being the supreme law of the government so that all other laws from all other sources must be consistent with the constitution. In fact, the U.S. Constitution specifies, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land” (U.S. Const. art. VI, § 2). The U.S. Constitution delegates to the U.S. Congress the power and responsibilities to make laws that apply to the United States, and the various state constitutions designate the state legislature as the law-making authority in the state. When one of these legislative bodies enacts a law, usually called a statute, that statute must be obeyed by all to whom it applies. Often, when a legislative body enacts a statute, the details of what that statute means and how it is to be enforced are left to an administrative agency. The responsible administrative agency then creates regulations that supply the necessary details. Those regulations are then made available, and the public is given an opportunity to comment on the regulations. The regulations may be modified based on public input, and once the public has had the opportunity for input, the regulations become binding to the same extent as if they were a part of the originally enacted statute. The legal system in the United States evolved from the common law legal system in England, which developed after the Norman Invasion in 1066 when there were no legislative bodies to create laws. The courts established by the medieval kings sought to standardize the way that legal disputes were resolved, and, to that end, began to consider how legal disputes had been resolved in earlier cases and to apply the logic used in those earlier cases. The result was that, over a long period of time, a body of law based on previous court decisions evolved that guided how future legal disputes would be resolved, and that body of case law came to be known as the common law (Parrington, 2012). There are less prominent but still important sources of law in the United States that are within the domain of the president: treaties and executive orders. The U.S. Constitution provides that the president has the power to make treaties with foreign nations with the approval of the Senate. Although treaties often address the

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relationship between the United States and foreign governments, the provisions of treaties can impact the dealings between businesses in the United States and businesses in foreign countries. While the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly authorize the president to issue executive orders, it is recognized that the president needs to direct federal agencies within the executive branch on how to enforce laws; as a result, the concept of executive orders would be developed as a means for the president to carry out those duties. The responses of federal agencies to executive orders result in administrative regulations that affect businesses in a variety of ways.

Courts The U.S. Constitution specifically authorizes the creation of the Supreme Court of the United States and authorizes Congress to establish whatever other courts it determines are necessary. The structure of the federal court system that has developed from this constitutional authorization consists of specialty courts; trial courts, which, in the federal court system, are called the U.S. district courts; intermediate appellate courts, which are called the U.S. Courts of Appeals; and the Supreme Court of the United States. The specialty courts in the federal system are designated to deal with specific kinds of legal disputes. For example, the U.S. bankruptcy courts oversee cases under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and the U.S. Court of Claims resolves legal claims made against the United States. Most legal cases in the federal courts begin in a U.S. district court where evidence and witnesses are presented to a judge or jury, and the judge or jury makes a decision about whether the claim that was made is valid and what legal consequences valid claims will have. If a party in a case in a U.S. district court is not satisfied with an outcome and believes that either the law was improperly applied or that the proper procedure was not followed, that party can file an appeal and ask a U.S. Court of Appeals to review the case. On appeal, the case is not retried, and no new evidence or witnesses are considered. Instead, the court reviews the record of documents, evidence, and testimony from the trial of the case and decides if the law was properly applied and the proper procedure followed. If a party in a case reviewed by a U.S. Court of Appeals is not satisfied with the outcome of the case after review, that party can ask the Supreme Court of the United States to review the case. That request to review is made by filing a motion for writ of certiorari with the court, but the Supreme Court is not required to review every case and usually only agrees to consider the cases that it is asked to review that have a nationwide impact or that resolve a legal question that has wide-ranging effects. State Court System There is a second legal system in the United States that exists alongside the federal court system. Each state has its own court system that handles legal disputes that concern laws of that state and that involve legal issues in that state. The structures of these state court systems are similar to the structure of the federal court system. There are specialty courts, sometimes called inferior courts, such as traffic courts and small claims courts that are designed to deal with legal disputes that involve relatively small amounts of money. There are trial courts where most cases begin and where judges and juries decide cases. Many states have an intermediate appellate level of courts that review cases from the trial courts, and most states have a highest court, which is usually called the Supreme Court, though the names of courts in the state court systems can be confusing. For example, in New York, the trial court is called the Supreme Court, the intermediate appeals court is called the Supreme Court Appellate Division, and the highest court is called the Court of Appeals. Litigation Processes There is a process that most civil litigation follows, whether the case proceeds in federal court or in state court. The civil litigation process begins when the plaintiff, the party seeking some sort of legal resolution of a dispute, files a complaint with a court that contains a brief statement of what the legal dispute is about and what relief the plaintiff is seeking from the court. The filing of a complaint triggers a series of stages in the civil litigation process: the pretrial stage, which includes pleadings, pretrial motions, and discovery; the trial stage where testimony of witnesses and evidence is presented and resolution of cases occur; and appeals.

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The process of civil litigation can be complex and time-consuming, and the number of cases that are filed can cause delays in the resolution of a case, so a different approach to resolving legal disputes has developed. That approach is alternative dispute resolution (ADR), which actually is a list of approaches to resolving legal disputes outside of the formal court system. Negotiation, which often takes place early in the process of civil litigation, consists of the parties to the dispute simply talking with each other in an attempt to reach an agreement to resolve the dispute. Mediation is a more formal process in which a third party who is not an interested party to the dispute brings the parties to the dispute together in an attempt to find some common ground that will allow the resolution of the dispute. An even more formal process in ADR is arbitration, which bears some similarities to a civil trial. In arbitration, the disputing parties select an independent third party, an arbitrator, who will consider evidence from both sides of the dispute and make a decision resolving the dispute.

References Parrington, M. (2012, October). A short history of the common law. Michael’s General Musings.

https://blogs.harvard.edu/mparrington73/2016/03/16/a-short-history-of-the-common-law/ U.S. Const. art. VI, § 2

Learning Activities (Nongraded) Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information.

View the Unit I Glossary to review key terms presented in this unit. Alternate format for Unit I Glossary

Reference Photogl. (n.d.). Books on library shelves (ID 20785201) [Photograph]. Dreamstime.

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-books-library-shelves-image20785201

(Photogl, n.d.)