Business law

Commercial law or business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. Commercial law regulates corporate contracts, hiring practices, and the manufacture and sales of consumer goods. Many countries have adopted civil codes which contain comprehensive statements of their commercial law. In the United States, commercial law is the province of both the Congress under its power to regulate interstate commerce, and the states under their police power. Efforts have been made to create a unified body of commercial law in the US: the most successful of these attempts has resulted in the general adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Various regulatory schemes control how commerce is conducted, privacy laws, safety laws (i.e. OSHA in the United States) food and drug laws are some examples.

Contract Law

Formation

Usually a contract forms when one person makes an offer and another person accepts it by performing the offer's terms or communicating their approval. Furthermore, if the terms are certain, and the two people can be presumed from their behaviour and actions to have intended that the terms are binding, then the agreement is (generally) enforceable.

Some contracts, for example, the sale of land, or other particularly large transactions, also require the formalities of signatures and witnesses (sometimes in the form of a deed). English Contract Law requires all people, known as ‘parties’, to bring something of value, known as ‘consideration’, to a bargain as a precondition to enforce it.

Content of a Contract

The terms in a contractual agreement are incorporated through definitive promises by reference to other terms or through a course of dealing between two people. English Contract Law allows plenty of freedom for people to agree the terms and content of a deal.

Contract Law is at its best when an agreement is performed and resorting to the courts is never needed because each party knows their rights and duties (for example, a shareholder agreement).

Category:Business law

Business law consists of many different areas taught in law school and business school curricula, including: Contracts, the law of Corporations and other Business Organizations, Securities Law, Intellectual Property, Antitrust, Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, Income Tax, Pensions & Benefits, Trusts & Estates, Immigration Law, Labor Law, Employment Law and Bankruptcy. It is a branch of law that examines topics that impact the operation of a business.

Subcategories

This category has the following 20 subcategories, out of 20 total.

 

► Business law by country‎ (7 C)

A

► Agency law‎ (2 C, 20 P)

► Arbitration‎ (5 C, 25 P)

B

► Bankruptcy‎ (6 C, 68 P)

► Business law journals‎ (5 P)

C

► Commercial crimes‎ (10 C, 49 P)

► Competition law‎ (8 C, 44 P)

► Consumer protection law‎ (7 C, 20 P)

► Contract law‎ (19 C, 331 P)

► Corporate law‎ (8 C, 126 P)

F

► Financial regulation‎ (11 C, 115 P)

► Fisheries law‎ (4 C, 50 P)

I

► Industrial relations‎ (4 C, 12 P)

► Insolvency‎ (6 C, 37 P)

J

► Joint ventures‎ (16 C, 255 P)

L

► Labour law‎ (18 C, 115 P)

N

► Negotiable instrument law‎ (23 P)

O

► Organizations by legal status‎ (12 C, 1 P)

T

► Corporate taxation‎ (7 C, 30 P)

U

► Uniform Commercial Code‎ (8 P)

business law, also called commercial law or mercantile law, the body of rules, whether by convention, agreement, or national or international legislation, governing the dealings between persons in commercial matters.

Business law falls into two distinctive areas: (1) the regulation of commercial entities by the laws of company, partnership, agency, and bankruptcy and (2) the regulation of commercial transactions by the laws of contract and related fields.

In civil-law countries, company law consists of statute law; in common-lawcountries it consists partly of the ordinary rules of common law and equity and partly statute law. Two fundamental legal concepts underlie the whole of company law: the concept of legal personality and the theory of limited liability. Nearly all statutory rules are intended to protect either creditors or investors.

There are various forms of legal business entities ranging from the sole trader, who alone bears the risk and responsibility of running a business, taking the profits, but as such not forming any association in law and thus not regulated by special rules of law, to the registered company with limited liability and to multinational corporations. In a partnership, members “associate,” forming collectively an association in which they all participate in management and sharing profits, bearing the liability for the firm’s debts and being sued jointly and severally in relation to the firm’s contracts or tortious acts. All partners are agents for each other and as such are in a fiduciary relationship with one another.

An agent is a person who is employed to bring his principal into contractual relations with third parties. Various forms of agency, regulated by law, exist: universal, where an agent is appointed to handle all the affairs of his principal; general, where an agent has authority to represent his principal in all business of a certain kind; and special, where an agent is appointed for a particular purpose and given only limited powers. Appointment may be express or implied and may be terminated by acts of the parties; the death, bankruptcy, or insanity of either the principal or agent; frustration; or intervening illegality. (See also agency theory, financial.)

It is inevitable that in certain circumstances business entities might be unable to perform their financial obligations. With the development of the laws surrounding commercial enterprises, a body of rules developed relating to bankruptcy: when a person or company is insolvent (i.e., unable to pay debts as and when they fall due), either he or his creditors may petition the court to take over the administration of his estate and its distribution among creditors. Three principles emerge: to secure fair and equal distribution of available property among the creditors, to free the debtor from his debts, and to enquire into the reasons for his insolvency.

Business law touches everyday lives through every contractual dealing undertaken. A contract, usually in the form of a commercial bargain involving some form of exchange of goods or services for a price, is a legally binding agreement made by two or more persons, enforceable by the courts. As such they may be written or oral, and to be binding the following must exist: an offer and unqualified acceptance thereof, intention to create legal relations, valuable consideration, and genuine consent (i.e., an absence of fraud). The terms must be legal, certain, and possible of performance.

Contractual relations, as the cornerstone of all commercial transactions, have resulted in the development of specific bodies of law within the scope of business law regulating (1) sale of goods—i.e., implied terms and conditions, the effects of performance, and breach of such contracts and remedies available to the parties; (2) the carriage of goods, including both national and international rules governing insurance, bills of lading, charter parties, and arbitrations; (3) consumer credit agreements; and (4) labour relations determining contractual rights and obligations between employers and employees and the regulation of trade unions.

Business law, on national and international levels, is continually evolving with new areas of law developing in relation to consumer protection, competition, and computers and the Internet.