1. 1 Areas of law affecting a business 2 Legal duties arising from business activities 3 Legal rights of groups affected by business activities

2. 1 Areas of law affecting a business

3. 1.1 Civil law and criminal law

4. CriminalCivil PurposePunishmentCompensation PartiesState v defendantPlaintiff v defendant OutcomeGuilty or not guilty Plaintiff wins or loses Consequence If convicted, then sentencedIf he wins, obtains a remedy CourtsMagistrates, or Crown courtCounty or high court CostsLegal aid; If convicted, pay costs Legal aid; Loser pays all costs Facts Magistrate or juryJudge LawJudge Standard of Proof Beyond reasonable doubtOn balance of probability Example Murder, theftContract, property

5. 1.2 Contract and Tort

6. Contact Tort Liability is voluntarily undertakenLiability is imposed by Courts Liability is strict Liability is based on fault Put the injured as if contract had been performed Put the injured as if tort had never been committed

7. 1.3 Consumer law 1.4 Employment law 1.5 Property law (1) Real property (2) Personal Property

8. 1.6 Financing law (1) Loan (2) Bond (3) Shares (4) Security for loan NYSE:Grasso Skyworth:

9. 2 Legal duties arising from business activities 2.1 Civil duties and criminal duties 2.2 Common law duties and statutory duties (1) Most of such rules are statutory (2) They are applied with equal vigor (3) Common law rules shall not contradict statue

10. 2.3 Limited and unlimited liability (1) Unlimited liability in usual civil cases (2) Owner of corporation may have limited liability (3) Carrier under maritime law 2.4 Fault based liability and strict liability (1) Almost all common law liability in tort is fault based (2) Consumer protection, strict liability (3) Employer liability (4) Legal duties may overlap.

11. Small bakery, supermarket, contract Main problem: loaves do not feed properly through slicing and wrapping machine; called fitter to the machine several times, un-repaired; guard was removed; Operator was requested to manually push the loaf. Operator slips, his hand makes contact with the blades of slicing machine, badly injured; three fingers lost. Unable to deliver goods to supermarket. Only half of the order was performed. One loaf contained a metal bolt falling from slicing machine. Customer broke a teeth when he bit the bolt. Case study 1

12. Legal duties: (1)Bakery are liable to be prosecuted under Criminal law (2)Bakery to employee: tort of negligence (3) Bakery violated contract (4)Supermarket are strictly liable (5)Bakery are strictly liable (6) If the bakery is partnership, partners are jointly liable

13. 3.1 Employees (1) Collective bargain (2) Mandatory worker compensation 3.2 Consumers and customers 3.3 Shareholders (1) Minority protection (2) Derivative action 3 Legal rights of groups affected by business activities

14. 3.4 Creditors (1) Security (2) Bankruptcy 3.5 Community (1) Tort (2) Urban planning

15. 3.6 The State (1) Criminal law enforcement (2) Framework for dispute settlement (3) Government regulation on business affairs (4) State owns big business.

16. Questions : What legal liabilities arise from the following cases: (1) Accountant steals money from client (2) Company newsletter mistakenly stated an ex- employee has been convicted (3) Company driver took a short cut across farmers land damaging crops

17. (4) Self-employed technician buys a van with stolen cheque (5) Partners in partnership drive firms van without taxing or insuring it (6) Company director burns company documents.