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Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1) Compare and contrast the federal, state, and international legal
systems.
2) Summarize the legal principles of common law applicable to a working
understanding of administrative, civil, and criminal law.
3) Distinguish the primary legal causes of action that affect the
business environment including administrative, tort, contract,
constitutional, and criminal law.
4) Analyze case law and statutory precedent to identify the necessary
correlation between given fact patterns and causes of action within the
system.
5) Assess legal reasoning in case brief and trial form to determine
effects of precedent, documentation, and standards of proof.
6) Distinguish between tort and contractual causes of action and their
judicial processes.
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I. Federal, state, and administrative common law systems of the U.S. vs.
international law systems
A. U.S. common law cases and statutes and their relationship to
administrative, civil, and criminal law
B. Civil law systems, common law systems, and hybrid systems
C. Legal opinion and precedent; case brief format.
D. Remedies at law and equity; specific cases of action and their
parameters
II. Constitutional law on federal and state level, as it relates to
administrative, civil, tort, criminal and contract law
A. Bill of Rights and its application to business and commerce
B. Limitations of constitutional protections
1) Equal Protection Clause
2) Due Process Clause
3) Three-prong scrutiny tests
C. First Amendment impact on commercial and non-commercial speech in
the business environment
III. Survey of common law torts, elements and remedies in the business
environment
A. principles, elements, and case law of negligent, intentional, and
strict liability torts
B. specific torts and issues associated with business environments
C. principles of tort law and inherent liabilities and duties
1) personal torts
2) business torts
D. Hypothetical trial court presentation of a product liability case
1) standards of comparative negligence
2) elements of cause of action
3) factual support
4) legal opinion
E. Intellectual property
1) protections
2) liability
3) internet transactions
IV. Criminal Law in the Common Law System
A. Primary felonies and misdemeanors in the common law system
B. Crimes vs. torts
C. Civil vs. criminal liability
V. Common Law Contract
A. Common Law Contracts vs. Sales Law from historical and consumer
perspectives
B. Essential elements of a contract (common law vs. sales)
C. Statute of Frauds and its defenses
D. Additional defenses to contract formation and limitations
E. Traditional vs. internet contracts
F. Duty to mitigate and variables
VI. Student-generated strategies to apply to contractual processes
A. Schematic including specific criteria and statue identification
for common law and sales law contracts
B. Specific fact problems utilizing schematic
C. Hypothetical trial court presentation of a breach of contract case
1) cause of action
2) contract principles (common law or sales)
3) factual support
4) legal reasoning with citation of basis
VII. Liabilities of domestic and international business entity forms
A. Forms of business entities
1. C-Corporations
2. S-Corporations
3. Partnerships
4. Limited Liability Corporation (LLC's)
5. Sole Proprietorship
B. Appropriate form for the specific business
VIII. Principles and practices of tort, criminal, constitutional, and
contract law
A. Hypotheticals/fact patterns based on course principles
B. Fact patterns typical to the business environment; correlating
law
C. Effect of competent communication skills on legal response
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BUSINESS LAW TODAY. Roger LeRoy Miller and Gaylord A. Jentz. 6th
edition, Thomson/Southwestern Publishing Company, copyright 2003. -or-
BUSINESS LAW: LEGAL, E-COMMERCE, ETHICAL, AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
by Henry R. Cheeseman. 5th edition, Prentice Hall Publishing, copyright
2004.
