Legal Environment I - Chapters 1 & 2 Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental concepts from Legal Environment I, Module 1 (Chapters 1 & 2), including the purpose and sources of law, natural vs. legal persons, attributes of legal subjects, and principles of corporate liability.

Coordination Rules

Legal rules arising from pure practical necessity rather than morality, requiring everyone in a community to follow the same standard so society can function orderly (e.g., driving on the right in Belgium vs. left in the UK).

Cooperation Rules

Legal rules designed to achieve common goals through pooled resources or joint efforts that no individual could realistically accomplish alone (e.g., tax law, company law).

Law

A set of general, pre-established, and binding rules organising relationships among members of a community in the interest of their collective well-being.

Morality

A compass indicating what is right or wrong that may belong to a social group at a given time or to an individual, varying across time, culture, and religion.

Ethics

Practical rules intended to guide individual existence towards a good life, requiring individual critical thinking to determine if a decision is correct or the least harmful possible.

Open-Textured Legal Concepts

Flexible legal standards (such as public policy, the "prudent and reasonable person", fair competition, and honest practices) that enable legal rules to adapt to evolving social values.

Census Suffrage

A voting system where political rights are restricted strictly to tax-paying citizens, as applied in Belgium between $1830$ and $1831$ for tax-paying men.

Lallemand–Michielsens Act

The $1990$ Belgian law that achieved the partial decriminalisation of abortion within a $12$-week limit from conception.

Professional Ethics

Rules and duties governing a specific profession internally and in dealings with third parties, established and enforced by a professional order or association (e.g., the Bar enforcing a lawyer's duty of confidentiality).

Hierarchy of Norms

The structured ranking of sources of law in order of authority, moving from highest to lowest: International & EU law, the Belgian Constitution, Legislation, Executive regulations, Custom, Case law, and Legal scholarship.

Case Law

The collection of judgments and decisions rendered by courts and tribunals, which clarify, interpret, and apply general legislative rules to specific legal disputes.

Legal Scholarship

Research and commentary published by professors, researchers, and legal specialists analyzing rules, decisions, and interpretations of law; influential to judges but legally non-binding.

Custom (as a source of law)

An unwritten rule arising from traditional practices and long-established common usages, applied by courts because those concerned consider compliance to be legally mandatory.

Legal Subject

An individual or entity (a natural person or legal person) capable of holding legal rights and being subject to legal obligations.

Natural Person

A human being born alive and viable, who possesses legal personality starting at birth and ending at death.

Civil Status

An individual's legal position relative to their family and the State (e.g., single, married, divorced, widowed), officially recorded in central database records by civil registrars.

Domicile

A person's official legal address marking their principal establishment (of which an individual can only have one at a time), as distinguished from factual residence.

Jus Sanguinis

The principle of nationality law ("right of blood") under which nationality is transmitted to a child through parentage, regardless of the country of birth.

Jus Soli

The principle of nationality law ("right of the soil") where an individual's place of birth plays a role in determining or acquiring nationality.

Patrimony

The totality of a person's monetary assets and liabilities (property, cash, claims, and debts) that serves as the common guarantee for their creditors.

Legal Capacity

A person's legal ability, comprising two distinct aspects: the capacity to hold rights (possessing a right) and the capacity to exercise rights (personally performing transactions to enforce or use them).

Legal Person

A legal fiction created on paper through articles of association (e.g., company or ASBL) that enjoys its own distinct legal personality, name, legal form, address, patrimony, and legal capacity.

Registered Office

A legal person's official address, which determines applicable national company law, the language of corporate documents, and the legal jurisdiction of competent courts.

Limited Liability

A corporate structure barrier separating the company's patrimony from the personal patrimonies of its shareholders, limiting shareholders' financial risk for corporate debts to their capital contributions.

Personal Income Tax (IPP)

A progressive tax levied on natural persons in Belgium, divided into brackets ranging from $01\%$ (tax-free allowance) up to $50\%$ for income exceeding $\text{€}51,070$ ($2026$ figures).

Corporate Income Tax (ISoc)

The tax regime directly applied to a legal person's taxable profit, featuring a standard rate of $25\%$ and a reduced rate of $20\%$ on the first $\text{€}100,000$ of profit for qualifying small enterprises.

Misuse of Corporate Assets (Abus de biens sociaux)

A criminal offence under Article $476$ of the Belgian Criminal Code occurring when a director uses company assets with fraudulent intent for personal gain, knowing the action causes significant harm to the company, creditors, or shareholders.