International business law - IB
Lecture 01: Introduction to IBL
➢ What’s law?
o The body of rules and regulations that govern the activities of persons within
a country/jurisdiction.
o Rules governing conduct of ‘actors’ in a society
o Creating rights, obligations, facilitating ‘co-existence’/’co-operation’
o Procedures to enforce law when breached
➢ Why English law?
o English law is pro-business and adapted to foreign parties
o Global reach of English law
o Sector dominance of English law
o High degree of certainty and predictability
o Flexibility of common law
➢ Law and business
o Legal rules in place influence what business can do or how they go about doing it.
▪ What to build and sell (IP,
products liability etc.)
▪ How to fund product (contracts,
selling shares, debt financing etc.)
▪ How to protect what they make
(IP, contracts etc.)
▪ How to behave toward and in
relation to others (Contract law,
negligence, competition law, etc.)
➢ Law, morality, and society
o How do legal, moral and social duties overlap?
▪ Legal vs moral; legal vs social; moral
vs social
o Can law be morally justified?
▪ Murder?
▪ Abortion?
▪ Euthanasia?
o Should society strive for overlapping legal,
moral and social duties?
,➢ Classification of law
➢ Legal systems
o “…the body of institutions that make, execute, and resolve disputes on the law of
a jurisdictions, together with the law they deal with.”
➢ Two major legal systems:”
o Common law
o Civil law
➢ Sources of law
o Legislation
o Case Law/Common Law
o European Union Law
, o International law
➢ Sources of law: Legislation
o Primary legislation/Act of Parliament
▪ Acts of Parliament also called statutes.
▪ Made by Parliament
▪ Parliamentary sovereignty
• Parliament is the supreme law-making body in the UK
• It has the power to make any statutes on any subject matter, and
• British courts are bound to enforce the law & cannot question
their validity.
o Delegated legislation
▪ Made by bodies other than Parliament
▪ Power to make delegated legislation
is given by Parliament
▪ Bodies that are given the power to
pass delegated legislation can only
pass laws within the limited power
given to them under the enabling
Act.
▪ Delegated legislation going beyond the
power of the enabling Act is said to
be “ultra vires” and can be invalidated
by the courts.
➢ Sources of law: Case law
o In a case, a judge:
▪ Gives the actual decision (which
party is successful in the case).
▪ Gives her legal reasons for making the decision based on the material
facts (ratio decidendi)
▪ May discuss the law generally and give some hypothetical situations
(obiter dictum)
o Doctrine of precedent
▪ An authoritative and binding decision in a case used to decide a later
case with broadly similar facts
▪ Judge of lower courts must apply the legal rules set down by higher
courts (or courts of the same status) in earlier cases where the facts are
similar.
, ➢ Sources of law: EU
law
o Primary EU law
▪ Treaties – are agreements between countries.
▪ Treaty of Rome 1957 (which set up the European Economic Community);
Single European Act 1987; Treaty on European Union 1992;… Treaty of
Lisbon 2009 (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
o Secondary EU law
▪ Regulations:
• Have direct force in Member States from their creation without
Member States having to pass their own implementing
legislations;
• Aim to produce uniformity of law throughout the EU
▪ Directives:
• Statements of policy that require member states to alter their
national laws so that they conform to the directive within a
specified time;
• Seek to harmonise the law in Member States;
• Instruct Member States to accomplish a certain goal but allows
each Member State to choose how that goal is to be achieved.
▪ Decisions
• An issue may be brought before the European Council or
Commision for its consideration.
• The decisions of these institutions are binding on the states,
persons, or companies to whom they are addressed.
• Note: decisions don’t have general binding force on other
states, persons, or companies
o Direct applicability
▪ EU legal acts are automatically incorporated into domestic law as soon
as they are passed.
▪ Direct applicability ≠ direct effect => not all directly applicable EU
legislation will be directly effective.
o Direct effect: legal acts that can be relied on in a domestic court are said to
have ‘direct effect’.
Lecture 01: Introduction to IBL
➢ What’s law?
o The body of rules and regulations that govern the activities of persons within
a country/jurisdiction.
o Rules governing conduct of ‘actors’ in a society
o Creating rights, obligations, facilitating ‘co-existence’/’co-operation’
o Procedures to enforce law when breached
➢ Why English law?
o English law is pro-business and adapted to foreign parties
o Global reach of English law
o Sector dominance of English law
o High degree of certainty and predictability
o Flexibility of common law
➢ Law and business
o Legal rules in place influence what business can do or how they go about doing it.
▪ What to build and sell (IP,
products liability etc.)
▪ How to fund product (contracts,
selling shares, debt financing etc.)
▪ How to protect what they make
(IP, contracts etc.)
▪ How to behave toward and in
relation to others (Contract law,
negligence, competition law, etc.)
➢ Law, morality, and society
o How do legal, moral and social duties overlap?
▪ Legal vs moral; legal vs social; moral
vs social
o Can law be morally justified?
▪ Murder?
▪ Abortion?
▪ Euthanasia?
o Should society strive for overlapping legal,
moral and social duties?
,➢ Classification of law
➢ Legal systems
o “…the body of institutions that make, execute, and resolve disputes on the law of
a jurisdictions, together with the law they deal with.”
➢ Two major legal systems:”
o Common law
o Civil law
➢ Sources of law
o Legislation
o Case Law/Common Law
o European Union Law
, o International law
➢ Sources of law: Legislation
o Primary legislation/Act of Parliament
▪ Acts of Parliament also called statutes.
▪ Made by Parliament
▪ Parliamentary sovereignty
• Parliament is the supreme law-making body in the UK
• It has the power to make any statutes on any subject matter, and
• British courts are bound to enforce the law & cannot question
their validity.
o Delegated legislation
▪ Made by bodies other than Parliament
▪ Power to make delegated legislation
is given by Parliament
▪ Bodies that are given the power to
pass delegated legislation can only
pass laws within the limited power
given to them under the enabling
Act.
▪ Delegated legislation going beyond the
power of the enabling Act is said to
be “ultra vires” and can be invalidated
by the courts.
➢ Sources of law: Case law
o In a case, a judge:
▪ Gives the actual decision (which
party is successful in the case).
▪ Gives her legal reasons for making the decision based on the material
facts (ratio decidendi)
▪ May discuss the law generally and give some hypothetical situations
(obiter dictum)
o Doctrine of precedent
▪ An authoritative and binding decision in a case used to decide a later
case with broadly similar facts
▪ Judge of lower courts must apply the legal rules set down by higher
courts (or courts of the same status) in earlier cases where the facts are
similar.
, ➢ Sources of law: EU
law
o Primary EU law
▪ Treaties – are agreements between countries.
▪ Treaty of Rome 1957 (which set up the European Economic Community);
Single European Act 1987; Treaty on European Union 1992;… Treaty of
Lisbon 2009 (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
o Secondary EU law
▪ Regulations:
• Have direct force in Member States from their creation without
Member States having to pass their own implementing
legislations;
• Aim to produce uniformity of law throughout the EU
▪ Directives:
• Statements of policy that require member states to alter their
national laws so that they conform to the directive within a
specified time;
• Seek to harmonise the law in Member States;
• Instruct Member States to accomplish a certain goal but allows
each Member State to choose how that goal is to be achieved.
▪ Decisions
• An issue may be brought before the European Council or
Commision for its consideration.
• The decisions of these institutions are binding on the states,
persons, or companies to whom they are addressed.
• Note: decisions don’t have general binding force on other
states, persons, or companies
o Direct applicability
▪ EU legal acts are automatically incorporated into domestic law as soon
as they are passed.
▪ Direct applicability ≠ direct effect => not all directly applicable EU
legislation will be directly effective.
o Direct effect: legal acts that can be relied on in a domestic court are said to
have ‘direct effect’.
