Business Law

Intro to Business Law

• What is Law?

  • Created by the Government to establish what is right and prohibit what is wrong

  • Penalties for Violation

• Where does it come from?

  • Constitutional, Legislation, and Judicial

• Constitutional Law

  • Federal Constitution - a contract with the citizens

    • Creates Federal government - Executive, Legislative, and Judicial

    • Establishes what the federal government can and cannot do

      • Military defense, tax, interstate commerce

      • Bill O’ Rights

  • State constitution

    • establishes state government

    • retains rights not given to the federal government

    • includes “catch-all”: police power and general health and welfare

• Legislation

  • Written Law

  • Authority to create in the constitution

    • federal - military, tax, interstate commerce

    • state - police power, general health and welfare

  • Created by elected officials

    • Federal and state congress

  • Also known as; acts, statutes, codes, and ordinances (only if created by a municipality)

The Courts and Procedure

• Jurisdiction - The power of the court

  • Subject Matter Jurisdiction - does the court have the power to make a judgment?

  • Personal Jurisdiction - think divorce court

• Venue

  • Select the court in the system

• District Justice

  • Civil Court

    • Small Dollar amounts

    • Landlord/Tenant cases

  • Criminal Court

    • Preliminary Arraignment

    • Preliminary Hearing or Trial

      • Appeal de novo from trial

• Administrative Agencies

  • Workers Comp, Unemployment ageny, department of revenue

• Trial Court

  • Court of Common pleas

    • Court of Record

  • Jurisdiction

    • General and original

  • Federal

    • US District Court

    • Limited Jurisdiction

      • Fed constitution

      • Fed Question

      • Diversity

• There are two levels of appellate court

  • Appeal as a matter of right

  • Certiorari

    • Affirm, Reverse, or reverse and remand

Civil Law

• Intentional Torts

  • Intentional Act

  • Violation of the Victim’s Protected right

  • Damages

  • Examples; Assault, battery, false imprisonment, emotional distress, defamation, trespass, nuisance

Agencies

• Agency - a relationship where on party, a principal, delegates authority to another party, the agent, to act on behalf of the first party, the principal