Business Law – Definities
The Regulatory Environment
Hoorcollege 1:
Co-regulation: Refers to rules that result from cooperation between State and business
organisations.
Legislator: Bodies of a state that have the authority to create laws.
Constitution: Document or an unwritten set of principles that outlines the fundamental values
and organizational structure of a state.
Jurisdiction: Denotes a territory within which a particular legal system applies.
Legal jurisdiction: Is the state’s ability to enforce law.
Legislative power: The authority of creating and adapting of rules.
Rule of law: Courts should be independent and apply rules equally.
Private law: Regulates people’s relations and people initiate its enforcement.
Public law: Regulates the relationships between the people and the state.
Regulation gap: Substantive and/or geographical gaps in the international legal framework.
Treaty: Agreement between two states (bilateral) or more (multilateral).
Convention: Terms for treaties on a specific topic.
Preamble: The introductory part of a treaty that sets out the background and objectives.
Ratification: The entering into a treaty by an country by the signing of the thereto authorized
body.
RTA (Regional Trade Agreements): Reciprocal agreements between two or more countries
on trade topics.
Case law/jurisprudence: Refers to the interpretation and application, or development, of rules
by judges.
Unilateral code of conduct: A company’s self-imposed rules.
Litigation/adjudication: A legal subject involves a court to begin a lawsuit under private law.
Amicable solution: Both parties discuss a solution among them instead of immediately
initiating arbitration or litigation.
Mediation: A neutral third party supports parties in solving their disagreement.
Arbitration: One or more neutral arbitrators function a judge for resolving the dispute.
Advocacy services: Lobbying, interest representation, public affairs, public relations and
strategic communications.
Legal audit: The extent to which the company’s legal function effectively and efficiently
supports the business.
Corporate governance: The procedures and processes that corporate management applies to
direct and control the business.
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure): Set of systematic instructions compiled by an
organization to help employees carry out complex routine operations.
Supplementary law: Statutory rules that apply when parties did not arrange anything.
Comparative law: Study about the differences and similarities between the legal systems
among countries.
Tradition: A cluster of legal systems that have historical commonalities.
Ethnocentrism: Judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own
culture.
Law of persons: Deals with natural persons (people) and legal persons such as the limited
liability company.
Administrative law: Regulates licenses, penalties and disputes with state bodies.
,Criminal law: Provides the basis for prosecuting individuals, companies or managers for
behavior that in a legal system qualifies as an offense or crime.
Substantive rules: Define and provide rights and duties.
Formal rules: Regulate dispute resolution proceedings, such as in court or by arbitration.
Sunnah: All the teachings transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad through his words,
expressions, deeds and tacit approval.
Ijmaa: The agreement of all competent jurists in any particular generation, acting as
representatives of the community on a point of law.
Qiyass: Analogical reasoning based on the previous three sources in case an answer to a new
question is not yet available.
Istihsan: Provides a correction opportunity in case an outcome of any source would turn out
to be unfair.
Hoorcollege 2:
Extraterritoriality: Competence of a state to enforce national legislation on non-nationals for
behavior that violates that law outside the borders of that state.
Red tape: Miscellaneous mandatory, time-consuming activities imposed on companies such
as reporting, testing and facilitation of audits and inspections.
Intra-company/transfer pricing: The rules and methods for pricing transactions within and
between enterprises under common ownership or control.
Sources of law: The places where the substantive and formal legal rules are found.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement: This clause enables investors in a signatory country to sue
that country for the damages from alleged discriminatory practices.
Advisory Division: Advises government and parliament on legislation and governance.
Administrative Jurisdiction Division: Is the country’s highest general administrative court.
Patrimonial law: The total of rules that regulate legal interactions among legal subjects
(people and organisations).
Private international law: The rules for legal relationships between parties that are in different
jurisdictions.
Mandatory law: Regulations that do not allow deviation.
Void: Invalid
Voidable: Destructible
ECLI (European Case Law Identifier): Country code: court code: year: number.
Open norms: Words such as reasonable or adequate which have no single meaning but leave
it to judges to complete in a case setting.
Appeal/judicial review: Brings a court’s ruling to a higher court.
General principles of law: The fundamental legal notions that constitute the basis of a legal
system.
Customary practice: A returning pattern of behaviour that is recognised and accepted as an
established rule.
Trade usages: Customs and traditions of traders in an industry such as shipping, banking and
insurance.
Expropriation: The actions of a state in claiming property such as land in the interest of the
country.
Arbitration: The voluntary resolution of a conflict, out-of-court by arbitrators.
General Administrative Order: a decision issued by a governmental agency through
an administrative court judge on matters of dispute between citizens and the agency.
, Ministerial Order: A formal judgment or mandate handed down on a specific issue or concern
from a major administrative department of a state, usually under the authority of that
department's chief minister, secretary or administrator.
Duty of care: Always act in the best interest of individuals and others.
Indefinite term contracts: Contracts that lack a termination date.
Secondment agreement: Temporary worker for temp-agency.
On-call employment contract: Contract but the number of hours to work is not defined
exactly. The employee’s notice period for termination is 4 days. It is mandatory for an
employer to offer the employee a fixed number of working hours after 12 months have
passed.
Payroll agreement: Differs from secondment agreement by the lack of an ‘allocation
function’ for the employer of the payroller.
UWV: Institute for employee insurances. The UWV can give permission to terminate an
employment contract for two grounds: economic reasons and employee’s long-term
incapacity for work.
Termination by mutual consent: Employer and employee can negotiate the conditions for a
termination and make these binding in a written termination contract.
Settlement agreement: The name of the contract with termination by mutual consent.
Collective redundancy: If a company in the Netherlands plans to dismiss, for business
economic reasons, at least 20 employees within one geographical work area within 3 months,
this qualifies as a collective redundancy.
Contracts of instruction/service provision agreements: Regulate intangible performances.
Construction agreement: covers tangible performances.
Temporary agreement clause: Enables a company that contract a temp agency’s services, to
terminate the cooperation at any time.
Social security: Refers to the system that provides monetary or non-monetary assistance to
inhabitants with insufficient or no income.
Hoorcollege 3:
Sovereign nation: A nation that independently defines its regulatory environment.
Supranational organization: A supranational organization is a multinational union or
association in which member countries cede authority and sovereignty on at least some
internal matters to the group, whose decisions are binding on its members.
Intergovernmental organisations: Regulation requires consent of all countries that make up
the organization.
Free Trade Area: Member States remove barriers for trade in goods and services between
them.
Customs unions: Union that removes trade barriers to the free flow of goods and services and
harmonizes Members’ trade policies.
Internal (single or common) market: Market with a free flow of goods, services and capital,
plus freedom of establishment in all Members States for companies and persons.
Economic union: Combines a customs union and internal market with coordination of
economic and fiscal policies of the members.
Monetary union: Economic union with a single currency.
Political union: An union that completely integrates sovereign national economically and
politically. An example is the UK, which is a political union of England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
First generation agreements: Agreements with a focus on tariff elimination.
The Regulatory Environment
Hoorcollege 1:
Co-regulation: Refers to rules that result from cooperation between State and business
organisations.
Legislator: Bodies of a state that have the authority to create laws.
Constitution: Document or an unwritten set of principles that outlines the fundamental values
and organizational structure of a state.
Jurisdiction: Denotes a territory within which a particular legal system applies.
Legal jurisdiction: Is the state’s ability to enforce law.
Legislative power: The authority of creating and adapting of rules.
Rule of law: Courts should be independent and apply rules equally.
Private law: Regulates people’s relations and people initiate its enforcement.
Public law: Regulates the relationships between the people and the state.
Regulation gap: Substantive and/or geographical gaps in the international legal framework.
Treaty: Agreement between two states (bilateral) or more (multilateral).
Convention: Terms for treaties on a specific topic.
Preamble: The introductory part of a treaty that sets out the background and objectives.
Ratification: The entering into a treaty by an country by the signing of the thereto authorized
body.
RTA (Regional Trade Agreements): Reciprocal agreements between two or more countries
on trade topics.
Case law/jurisprudence: Refers to the interpretation and application, or development, of rules
by judges.
Unilateral code of conduct: A company’s self-imposed rules.
Litigation/adjudication: A legal subject involves a court to begin a lawsuit under private law.
Amicable solution: Both parties discuss a solution among them instead of immediately
initiating arbitration or litigation.
Mediation: A neutral third party supports parties in solving their disagreement.
Arbitration: One or more neutral arbitrators function a judge for resolving the dispute.
Advocacy services: Lobbying, interest representation, public affairs, public relations and
strategic communications.
Legal audit: The extent to which the company’s legal function effectively and efficiently
supports the business.
Corporate governance: The procedures and processes that corporate management applies to
direct and control the business.
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure): Set of systematic instructions compiled by an
organization to help employees carry out complex routine operations.
Supplementary law: Statutory rules that apply when parties did not arrange anything.
Comparative law: Study about the differences and similarities between the legal systems
among countries.
Tradition: A cluster of legal systems that have historical commonalities.
Ethnocentrism: Judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own
culture.
Law of persons: Deals with natural persons (people) and legal persons such as the limited
liability company.
Administrative law: Regulates licenses, penalties and disputes with state bodies.
,Criminal law: Provides the basis for prosecuting individuals, companies or managers for
behavior that in a legal system qualifies as an offense or crime.
Substantive rules: Define and provide rights and duties.
Formal rules: Regulate dispute resolution proceedings, such as in court or by arbitration.
Sunnah: All the teachings transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad through his words,
expressions, deeds and tacit approval.
Ijmaa: The agreement of all competent jurists in any particular generation, acting as
representatives of the community on a point of law.
Qiyass: Analogical reasoning based on the previous three sources in case an answer to a new
question is not yet available.
Istihsan: Provides a correction opportunity in case an outcome of any source would turn out
to be unfair.
Hoorcollege 2:
Extraterritoriality: Competence of a state to enforce national legislation on non-nationals for
behavior that violates that law outside the borders of that state.
Red tape: Miscellaneous mandatory, time-consuming activities imposed on companies such
as reporting, testing and facilitation of audits and inspections.
Intra-company/transfer pricing: The rules and methods for pricing transactions within and
between enterprises under common ownership or control.
Sources of law: The places where the substantive and formal legal rules are found.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement: This clause enables investors in a signatory country to sue
that country for the damages from alleged discriminatory practices.
Advisory Division: Advises government and parliament on legislation and governance.
Administrative Jurisdiction Division: Is the country’s highest general administrative court.
Patrimonial law: The total of rules that regulate legal interactions among legal subjects
(people and organisations).
Private international law: The rules for legal relationships between parties that are in different
jurisdictions.
Mandatory law: Regulations that do not allow deviation.
Void: Invalid
Voidable: Destructible
ECLI (European Case Law Identifier): Country code: court code: year: number.
Open norms: Words such as reasonable or adequate which have no single meaning but leave
it to judges to complete in a case setting.
Appeal/judicial review: Brings a court’s ruling to a higher court.
General principles of law: The fundamental legal notions that constitute the basis of a legal
system.
Customary practice: A returning pattern of behaviour that is recognised and accepted as an
established rule.
Trade usages: Customs and traditions of traders in an industry such as shipping, banking and
insurance.
Expropriation: The actions of a state in claiming property such as land in the interest of the
country.
Arbitration: The voluntary resolution of a conflict, out-of-court by arbitrators.
General Administrative Order: a decision issued by a governmental agency through
an administrative court judge on matters of dispute between citizens and the agency.
, Ministerial Order: A formal judgment or mandate handed down on a specific issue or concern
from a major administrative department of a state, usually under the authority of that
department's chief minister, secretary or administrator.
Duty of care: Always act in the best interest of individuals and others.
Indefinite term contracts: Contracts that lack a termination date.
Secondment agreement: Temporary worker for temp-agency.
On-call employment contract: Contract but the number of hours to work is not defined
exactly. The employee’s notice period for termination is 4 days. It is mandatory for an
employer to offer the employee a fixed number of working hours after 12 months have
passed.
Payroll agreement: Differs from secondment agreement by the lack of an ‘allocation
function’ for the employer of the payroller.
UWV: Institute for employee insurances. The UWV can give permission to terminate an
employment contract for two grounds: economic reasons and employee’s long-term
incapacity for work.
Termination by mutual consent: Employer and employee can negotiate the conditions for a
termination and make these binding in a written termination contract.
Settlement agreement: The name of the contract with termination by mutual consent.
Collective redundancy: If a company in the Netherlands plans to dismiss, for business
economic reasons, at least 20 employees within one geographical work area within 3 months,
this qualifies as a collective redundancy.
Contracts of instruction/service provision agreements: Regulate intangible performances.
Construction agreement: covers tangible performances.
Temporary agreement clause: Enables a company that contract a temp agency’s services, to
terminate the cooperation at any time.
Social security: Refers to the system that provides monetary or non-monetary assistance to
inhabitants with insufficient or no income.
Hoorcollege 3:
Sovereign nation: A nation that independently defines its regulatory environment.
Supranational organization: A supranational organization is a multinational union or
association in which member countries cede authority and sovereignty on at least some
internal matters to the group, whose decisions are binding on its members.
Intergovernmental organisations: Regulation requires consent of all countries that make up
the organization.
Free Trade Area: Member States remove barriers for trade in goods and services between
them.
Customs unions: Union that removes trade barriers to the free flow of goods and services and
harmonizes Members’ trade policies.
Internal (single or common) market: Market with a free flow of goods, services and capital,
plus freedom of establishment in all Members States for companies and persons.
Economic union: Combines a customs union and internal market with coordination of
economic and fiscal policies of the members.
Monetary union: Economic union with a single currency.
Political union: An union that completely integrates sovereign national economically and
politically. An example is the UK, which is a political union of England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
First generation agreements: Agreements with a focus on tariff elimination.
