Lecture 1: What is Business Law?
Type Lecture
Reviewed
the Law = enforceable rules governing relationships among individuals and between individuals and their society
sets out rights, duties and obligations of citizens
Leads to “Stability and Predictability”:
why? because the law regulates conduct in society
at personal level → citizens need to be able to determine “right from wrong”
at business level → degree of “legal certainty” in business dealings
From a business POV, what is legally right and wrong? → IT DEPENDS:
the law has dealt with business issues in very different ways at different times and places in history
it reflects values and beliefs of society or its ruling group
there’s a close relationship between morality and any rule that society will enforce
KEY QUESTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PEOPLE:
how will the local, legal environment affect my business decision making?
degree of predictability?
business implications?
many different laws can affect a single business decision
HYUNDAY CASE STUDY
labour law → one of the lowest wages in the country + no paid lunches, breaks, vacation, no health insurance
or pensions
Georgia is anti unions → keeps salaries low
tax cuts and tax deals ⇒ tax incentives (tax break on batteries, no social security tax, tax credit for EVs, low
property tax)
minimum working age is 14
property law
Georgia provides free workforce training
Limited Liability Protection
no mandatory retirement (+ no retirement age) ⇒ no mandatory retirement funds
strong IP laws
unpaid vacation, unpaid maternity leave
Lecture 1: What is Business Law? 1
, Certain laws were enacted throughout time, evolved and developed for different purposes:
Public law ⇒ to proscribe certain kinds of behavior that society finds objectionable, concerns a citizen’s
relationship with society (includes constitutional, administrative, and criminal law and many forms of antitrust
law,environmental law, labor law, and securities regulation
Private law ⇒ to make an injured party (citizen, corporation, or other entity) whole (includes tort, agency,
contract, corporation, partnership, and property law)
Contract law ⇒ to end disputes, the law governing agreements
International Private Law = set of rules or procedural law that regulates relationships between people (or entities)
of different nationalities
determines which legal systems and law of which jurisdiction will apply to a legal dispute among
individuals involving a foreign element → “Conflict of Laws”
International Law = transnational rules that national courts use to regulate 3 primary relationships:
relationship between 2 nations
relationship between a nation and an individual
relationship between people/entities from different countries
Sources:
international conventions and treaties, customs/general practice
widely accepted general principles of law
all other sources used in national law (such as judicial decisions and scholarly writings)
CIVIL VS COMMON LAW:
Civil Law: Common Law:
“Continental Europe Approach” “Anglo-Saxon Tradition”
Lecture 1: What is Business Law? 2
, oldest and most influential legal system law found on a case-by-case basis
roman-germanic: codified law based on Roman court decisions rather than formal codes →
Code precedent
legal rules set out in 1 comprehensive and overall accumulation of judicial decisions → law
systematised code and accompanying statutes (ex: is developed and pronounced by courts
family law, property law, succession law, law of
Stare Decisis (stand by the decision)→ requires
obligations, commercial law, labour law)
courts to follow their own precedents, binds all
law found in the code ( 1 systemised code, a single of the lower courts of a jurisdiction to
comprehensiv legislative enactment) determinations of the highest court in the same
jurisdiction
much more nuanced (more difficult to find the
law)
encourages litigation (and people suing each
other) → more lawyers
Substantive Law = any body of law creating, defining, andregulating rights and obligations within the framework
of a single subject,such as contracts, torts, crimes, or property.
Pocedural Law =
HOMEWORK
3 ways the international law has helped shape your life personally:
setting 1 globally recognised system for telling time (+ processioning the length of a second needed for
cellphone networks)
universal postal network
Worldwide concert tours without artists being taxed twice
travelling easier, just with a passport
up-to-date weather forecast about your destination
Lecture 1: What is Business Law? 3
, 🥷
Lecture 2: Conflicts of Law
Type Lecture
Chapter read the extra material on German law smth smth
Reviewed
conflict of law = laws contradict themselves
criminal liability → you can be put in jail
civil liability → you would have to pay a fine
US Declaration of Independence = document declaring the independence of the American colonies from
England on July 4, 1776
US Constitution = fundamental law of the US which was ratified by the states on 1788
creates 3 branches of gov
outlines the organisation, powers, responsibilities and limits of the federal government
any law that violates the Constitution is null and void
protects individual rights by limiting the govs ability to restrict those rights
Bill of Rights:
10 amendments to US Constitution
guarantees fundamental rights and protects these rights from intrusive gov action
First Amendment = includes freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and petition, freedom of the press
and freedom of religion
Freedom of Speech:
right to engage in oral, written, and symbolic speech protected by the 1st Amendment
categories:
fully protected speech → cannot be prohibited or regulated by the government
Lecture 2: Conflicts of Law 1