The Legal Environment of Business: Business Law Review

Natural Law – denotes a system of moral and ethical principles that are inherent in human nature and that people can discover through the us of their natural intelligence, or reason.

Positive Law – Or national law (the written law of a given society at a particular point in time), applies only to the citizens of that nation or society.

Legal Realism – the idea that law is just one of many institutions in society and that it is shaped by social forces and needs.

Constitutional Law – The law expressed in these constitutions.

Statutory Law – Laws enacted by legislative bodies at any level of government, such as the statutes passed by congress or state legislatures, make up the body of law generally referred to as statutory law.

Ordinances – Statutes (laws, rules, or orders) passed by municipal or county governing units to govern matters not covered by federal or state law. Ordinances commonly have to do with county or city land use (zoning ordinances), building and safety codes, and other matters affecting the local unit.

Uniform Laws – or model laws, for the states to consider adopting.

Administrative laws – The rules, orders, and decisions o administrative agencies.

Administrative agency – a federal, state, or local government agency established o perform a specific function.

Executive agencies – is an agency that exist within the cabinet departments of the executive branch. The food and Drug administration, for example, is an agency within the department of Health and Human Services.

Independent regulatory agencies – are agencies at the Federal level, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the federal communications commission.

Case Law – Interpretations of constitutional provisions, of statutes enacted by legislatures, and of regulations created by administrative agencies is case la or common law.

Common Law – a body of general rules that applied throughout the entire English realm. Eventually, the common law tradition became part of the heritage of all nations that were once British colonies, including the United States.

Remedies – the legal name to enforce a right or redress a wrong.

Courts of law – is the courts that awarded the compensation.

Damages – money given to a party whose legal interests have been injured.

Chancellor – When individuals could not obtain adequate remedy in a court of law because of strict technicalities, they petitioned the king for relief. Most of these petitions were decided by an advisor to the king, called a chancellor.

Courts of Equity – Eventually, formal chancery courts, or courts of equity, were established.

Remedies in equity – equitable remedies were the remedies granted by the equity courts.

Equitable Maxims – judges were often guided by so called equitable maxims - propositions or general statements of equitable rules.

Laches – a term derived from the Latin word laxus meaning lax or negligent. It can be used as a defense.

Defense – an argument raised by the defendant (the party being sued) indicating why the plaintiff (the suing party) should not obtain the remedy sought.

Petitioner – the party bringing a lawsuit.

Respondent – the party being sued.

Statue of limitations – The doctrine of laches arose to encourage people to bring lawsuits while the evidence was fresh. The time periods for different types of cases are now usually fixed by statue of limitations.

Public Policy – governmental policy based on widely held societal values and data and concepts drawn from the social sciences.

Legal Reasoning – the reasoning process used by judges in deciding what law applies to a given dispute and then applying that law to the specific facts or circumstances of the case.

Alleges – claims.

Syllogism – a logical relationship involving a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.
Substantive Law – All laws that define, describe, regulate, and create legal rights and obligations.

Procedural Law – All laws that delineate the methods of enforcing the rights established by substantive laws.

Civil Law – the rights and duties that exist between persons and between persons and their governments, and the relief available when a person’s rights are violated.

Criminal Law – is concerned with wrongs committed against the public as a whole.

Cyber Law – the growing body of law that deals specifically with issues raised by cyberspace transactions.

Appellant – the party appealing the case.

Appellee – the party against whom the appeal is taken.