Business Law Notes

Business Law Notes- July, 10, 2008

Review from previous class session July 3, 2008

 The Rules of Law regulate relations
 Public Law: Relations between state and individuals
• Exercise of power for state authority
• Based on the Roman-German Tradition
• Associated with the meaning of ‘Res Publica,’ (which means State & Society collectively)
• Great Importance placed on Public Law-according to the European Continental Tradition

 Anglo-Saxon Law: Based on Common Law
• Case Law (law arrived through court decisions :Is the American term for Anglo-Saxon Common Law
• The American Law is a continuity of English Law

 European Continental law: Based on the Legal Theory and Legal Codes

 Statutes: Come from parliaments of the state

 Acts: Come from Congress

 Ordinances: Come from Municipal/Local Government

Notes from New Material

Ethical Issues and the World of Business

 Relationship between Ethics and Law-
• What is ethical is not always included in the law
• What is permitted by the law is not always ethical

 Unethical Acts can be considered legal
 Ethical considerations can be transferred to law because a moral obligation today can become a law tomorrow
 There is a connection but no identification between law and ethics because any sensation of the law has to do with some ethical ideas (something is wrong or something is right)

 Adam Smith – Founder of Political economy

• Believed in the Theory of the Invisible Hand, which is close to the individualism of the Anglo-Saxon Law
• The theory covers all individual actions that lead to the benefit of the whole society
•
 Ethics: Identified with the Principle of Autonomy
• Ethics deals with what is right and what is wrong

 Law: Identified with the Principle of Heteronomy
• Law has much more practical considerations about reactions between organizations, states, and citizens

 Autonomy: Deals with someone’s moral conscience
 Justinian Codes: