LEGS 3010 EXAM 1

Define Business law

Enforceable rules of conduct the govern commercial relationships

Define Criminal law

Involves incidents in which someone commits an act against the public as a whole

Define Civil law

Involves the rights and responsibilities involved in relationships between persons and their government

What are the 3 benefits of precedents?

Consistency, predictability, and efficiency

What are the disadvantages of precedents?

There can be too many, they may not apply to special incidents, and how can it be applied to ours

Define Law

Rules of conduct in any organized society that are enforced by the governing authority of the community

Define Private Law

Laws that involves suits between private individuals or groups

What is an example of public law?

A computer store dumps waste behind its building in violation of local, state, or federal environment regulations

Define Public Law

Laws that govern suits between private individuals or groups and their government

What is an example of private law?

Business person owns a computer equipment store and is delinquent in paying rent to the landlord

Define Constitutional Law

The general limits and powers of a government as interpreted from its written constitution

What does the constitutional law overrule?

Overrules all federal, state, and local laws that conflict with it and its foundation for all laws in the U.S.

Define Statutory law

Assortment of rules and regulations put forth by legislators

What does statutory law address?

Local taxes, environmental standards, zoning ordinances, and building codes

Define Model/Uniform laws

Laws created to account for the variability of laws among states. Serves to standardize the different interstate laws

Conference of commissioners of uniform state laws

Urges states to enact model laws to provide greater uniformity of law

Who are the responders in conference of commissioners of uniform state laws?

State legislators

Case/Common law

Collection of legal interpretations made by judges. Considered to be law unless otherwise revoked a statutory law

Precedent

Use of past decisions to guide future decisions

Stare decisis

Standing by the decision. Principle stating that rulings made in higher courts are a binding precedent for lower courts

Restatements of the law

Summaries of common law rules in a particular area of the law. Does not carry the weight of the law but can be used to guide interpretations of particular cases

Administrative law

Collection of rules and decisions made by administrative agencies to fill in particular details missing from constitutions and statutes

Treaty

A binding agreement between 2 states or international organizational

How does a treaty become binding?

When it is approved by 2/3 of the senate

Code of federal regulation

Presidents claim power (constitution) to take care that laws be faithfully executed

Identification with the vulnerable

Schools of jurisprudence that holds that society should be fair. Particular attention is therefor paid to the poor, ill, and ederly

What is an example of identification with the vulnerable?

Minimum wage laws

Historical school (Tradition/custom)

School of jurisprudence that uses tradition as the model for future laws and behavior

Originalism

Interpretations of legal texts such as the constitution by relying on the words or intent of the creators of the text in question

Legal realism

School of jurisprudence that holds that context must be considered as well as law. Context includes factors such as economic conditions and social conditions

What does legal realism argue?

Argues that the law must not be the sole factor

Cost-benefit analysis

Economic school of jurisprudence in which all costs and benefits of a law are given monetary values. Laws with the highest ratios of benefits to costs are preferable to those with lower ratios

Define Ethics

Study and practice of decisions about what is good or right

Define Business Ethics

The use of ethics and ethical principles to solve business dilemmas

Define Ethical Dilemma

Question about how one should behave that requires one to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of the optional choices for various stakeholders

Social responsibility of business

The expectations that a community places on the actions of firms inside that communities boarders

Legality of a decision

Minimal standard that must be met

Values

Positive abstractions that capture our sense of what is good and desireable

Stakeholders

Groups of people affected by a firm’s decisions

What are the 3 ethical guidelines?

Golden rule, public disclosure test, and the universalization test

Trial courts

court in which most civil or criminal cases start when they first enter the legal system. The parties present evidence and call witnesses to testify

What are state court systems referred to?

Courts of common pleas or county courts

What are federal court systems referred to?

District courts

Appellate courts

Higher court, usually consisting of more than 1 judge, that reviews the decisions and results of a lower court when a loosing party files for an appeal

What can appellate courts only handle?

Questions of the law

Question of law

An issue concerning the interpretation or application of a law

Question of fact

Question about an event or characteristics in a case

What is a bench trial?

A trial with no jury

In personam jurisdiction

The power of a court to require a party (usually the defendant) or a witness to come before the court

What is a limitation of in personam jurisdiction

It only extends to the states boarders in the state court system and across the courts geographic district in the federal system