Business Law I Essentials Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering basic principles, courts, dispute resolution, contract law, torts, employment law, administrative regulation, antitrust, and international law based on the Business Law I Essentials textbook.

Common Law

A legal system derived from the British legal system that relies on past judicial decisions, judge-made rulings, and precedents to ensure consistency and fairness.

Case Law

The body of past judicial decisions and legal interpretations created by judges in a common law system that informs future rulings.

Precedent

A previous court decision on a similar legal case that judges rely upon to guide and determine rulings in subsequent cases.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Informal and formal mechanisms, such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, used to resolve legal disputes outside of traditional court litigation.

Regulations

Standards and rules adopted by administrative agencies that carry the force of law and govern how statutory laws passed by legislative bodies will be enforced.

Negotiation

The process by which parties with nonidentical preferences allocate resources through interpersonal activity and joint decision making.

Dyadic Negotiation

A negotiation process that involves interaction directly between two individuals attempting to resolve a dispute.

Group Negotiation

A negotiation process that involves more than two individuals or parties, often introducing greater complexity and dynamic interaction.

Zero-Sum Negotiation

A distributive, win-lose negotiation approach based on the premise of a fixed pie, where any gain by one party results in an equivalent loss to the other party.

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

A questionnaire framework that categorizes five broad negotiation styles—forcing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and yielding—based on an individual's levels of concern for self versus concern for others.

Mediation

A form of alternative dispute resolution that utilizes a neutral third-party decision-maker (mediator) to guide disputing parties toward mutually acceptable solutions.

Arbitration

A private alternative dispute resolution process where disputing parties present evidence and arguments to one or more neutral arbitrators who render a decision or award.

Bare Bones Award

An arbitration decision in which the arbiter simply states the final decision without providing the underlying reasoning or rationale.

Reasoned Award

An arbitration decision that includes a detailed written statement outlining the rationale, facts, and calculations behind the arbiter's ruling.

Business Ethics

The blueprint or framework of acceptable behavior and moral standards that an organization expects its members and leadership to follow when making decisions.

Corporate Social Responsibility

The concept that a business has an opportunity and responsibility to contribute positively to society through methods like charitable giving, volunteerism, and environmental sustainability.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

A business framework that measures an organization's sustainability and overall impact across three core dimensions: profits, people, and the planet.

Federalism

The political system established by the U.S. Constitution that divides governing authority and power between the federal government and individual state governments.

Supremacy Clause

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes that the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and U.S. treaties constitute the supreme law of the land, invalidating conflicting state laws.

Commerce Clause

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, granting Congress the expressed power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with Indian tribes.

Police Power

The residual powers reserved to individual states under the Tenth Amendment to enact legislation safeguarding the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants.

Dormant Commerce Clause

A constitutional principle limiting state authority from enacting laws that unduly burden, interfere with, or discriminate against interstate commerce.

Central Hudson Test for Commercial Speech

A four-part legal framework established in Hudson Gas & Electric Corp v. Public Service Commission of New York to evaluate whether government restrictions on commercial speech violate the First Amendment.

Substantive Due Process

A Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment due process doctrine requiring that laws depriving a person of life, liberty, or property must be fair, rational, and not arbitrary.

Procedural Due Process

A due process requirement mandating that the government must follow fair legal procedures, notices, and hearings before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property.

Takings Clause

A Fifth Amendment provision requiring the government to pay private property owners just compensation (fair market value) whenever it takes private property for public use.

White Collar Crime

Nonviolent criminal offenses characterized by deceit, concealment, or breach of trust, committed by business professionals for financial gain or to protect business standing.

Fraud

The intentional misrepresentation or concealment of material facts to deceive another party for financial or personal gain.

Ponzi Scheme

An fraudulent investment scam that pays high returns to earlier investors using capital collected from newer investors, rather than from legitimate business profits or market investments.

Larceny

The unlawful taking and carrying away of the personal property of another person or business with the intent to permanently deprive them of it.

Embezzlement

The fraudulent taking or misuse of money or property by a person who was lawfully entrusted with its custody or control.

Bribery

The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of anything of value to influence the action or decision of an official or business representative.

Money Laundering

The process of concealing the origin of illegally obtained ("dirty") money by passing it through legitimate businesses or financial transactions to make it appear "clean."

Mens Rea

The criminal mind or wrongful mental intent that a prosecutor must establish to convict a defendant of a crime.

Actus Reus

The voluntary physical act or prohibited conduct that must occur for a crime to be committed.

Tort

A civil wrong or injury committed against a person or property, independent of a contract, resulting in legal liability remediable through legal action for damages.

Tortfeasor

An individual or entity that commits a tort or civil wrong.

Assault (Tort)

An intentional tort occurring when an actor creates a reasonable apprehension in another of an imminent, harmful, or offensive intentional act.

Defamation

An intentional tort involving the publication or communication of false malicious statements that damage another's reputation, divided into spoken (slander) and written/recorded (libel).

Negligence

A tort cause of action involving conduct that falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm.

Strict Liability

Legal responsibility for damages or injury imposed on a party without requiring a finding of fault, negligence, or criminal intent.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

A doctrine meaning "the thing speaks for itself," allowing a court or jury to infer negligence when an injury would not ordinarily occur without negligence and the instrument was under the defendant's control.

Contributory Negligence

A common law tort defense where any degree of negligence by the plaintiff that contributed to their harm completely bars them from recovering monetary damages.

Comparative Negligence

A tort rule that measures the relative fault of both plaintiff and defendant, reducing the plaintiff's financial recovery in proportion to their percentage of fault.

Contract

An agreement between two or more legally competent parties that is enforceable by law, requiring offer, acceptance, genuine agreement, consideration, capacity, and legality.

Consideration

A bargained-for exchange of something of legal value (money, property, rights, or promises) given by each party to induce the other to enter into an agreement.

Promissory Estoppel

An equitable doctrine enforcing a promise lacking formal consideration when a promisor makes a promise that reasonably induces substantial reliance and detriment by the promisee, preventing gross injustice.

Material Breach

A substantial failure to perform contractual obligations that deprives the non-breaching party of the fundamental benefit of the bargain, excusing them from further performance.

Minor Breach

A partial contract breach where the breaching party fails to perform a small part of the agreement, but the non-breaching party still receives the majority of the promised benefit.

Restitution

A contract remedy that restores an injured party to the position or status quo they occupied before the contract by returning any money, property, or benefit conferred.

Specific Performance

An equitable court order compelling a breaching party to carry out the exact performance mandated in the contract, applied when monetary damages are inadequate.

Goods (UCC)

Tangible personal property items that are movable at the time of identification to the contract for sale under Section 2-105 of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Merchant (UCC)

Under the Uniform Commercial Code, a person or entity that regularly deals in goods of the kind or holds themselves out as having specialized knowledge or skill peculiar to the practices or goods involved.

Warranty

A promise or guarantee made by a seller as part of a sales contract regarding the character, quality, title, or performance of the goods or services sold.

Express Warranty

An explicit oral or written guarantee made by a seller regarding the quality, condition, or performance of goods that becomes part of the basis of the bargain.

Implied Warranty of Merchantability

An unstated legal warranty automatically imposed on sales by merchant sellers guaranteeing that goods are fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

A federal agency established by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 responsible for establishing and enforcing health and safety standards in the workplace.

Workers' Compensation

A state statutory system providing exclusive administrative benefits and financial recovery to workers injured on the job, regardless of fault.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

A federal statute regulating child labor, federal minimum wage provisions, and overtime pay requirements for hours worked past 40 hours in a workweek.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

A federal statute guaranteeing eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for qualifying family and medical emergencies.

Trade Union

An organized group of workers that bargains collectively with employers to negotiate wages, benefits, working hours, and employment conditions.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

An independent federal agency established under the Wagner Act to enforce federal labor laws, supervise union elections, and investigate unfair labor practices.

Disparate Treatment

Intentional employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act where an employer intentionally treats an applicant or employee less favorably because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Disparate Impact

Unintentional employment discrimination under Title VII occurring when an employer's facially neutral employment practice disproportionately harms a protected class without a showing of business necessity.

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ)

A legal defense permitting employment discrimination based on sex, religion, or national origin when such a characteristic is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of a specific business.

Administrative Agency

A governmental body created by an organic statute passed by the legislature to administer, enforce, and execute specific statutory laws and regulations.

Administrative Procedure Act (APA)

A 1946 federal statute outlining the required procedural rules, public notices, rulemaking steps, and adjudication processes for federal administrative agencies.

Sherman Antitrust Act

An 1890 federal criminal statute that prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of trade and makes illegal any attempts to monopolize trade or commerce.

Clayton Act

A 1914 federal civil antitrust statute prohibiting price discrimination, exclusive dealing contracts, anticompetitive corporate mergers, and interlocking directorates that substantially lessen competition.

Unfair Trade Practice

Any deceptive, fraudulent, or unethical business practice or act that causes injury to consumers, prohibited under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Bait and Switch

An deceptive advertising tactic where a business advertises a product at a low price to attract customers, but then attempts to sell a different, higher-priced, or less desirable item.

Sources of International Law

The three primary foundational components that structure global legal governance: international customs, international treaties, and international organizations.

Principle of Comity

An international law doctrine under which one nation defers and gives effect to the laws and court decrees of another nation, provided they are consistent with its own laws and public policy.

Act of State Doctrine

A doctrine holding that the judicial branch of one nation will not examine or judge the validity of public acts committed by a recognized foreign government within its own sovereign territory.

Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity

A doctrine exempting foreign nations from the jurisdiction of courts in another country, subject to specific statutory exceptions like commercial activity causing a direct effect in the forum nation.

Insider Trading

The illegal buying or selling of securities by individuals in breach of a fiduciary duty or relationship of trust while in possession of material, nonpublic information.

Schedule 13D

An SEC disclosure form required to be filed within 10 days by any person or entity acquiring beneficial ownership of more than 5% of a public company's stock.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

An independent federal regulatory agency created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to enforce federal securities laws, protect investors, and oversee securities markets.

Blue Sky Laws

State-level statutes designed to regulate the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from speculative or fraudulent investment schemes.