Australian Commercial Law: Guidelines and Case Laws

This report discusses the guidelines and case laws of Australian Commercial Law, including the principles of business, law, and the Australian legal system. It also explores the formation and terms of contracts, and dispute resolution methods in Australia. The report concludes that Jan cannot be sued by Babe Ruth in the courts of Australia.

Australian Commercial
Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION :.........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 Finding Law....................................................................................................................3
Task 2 Business, Law and the Australian Legal System............................................................4
Task 3 Operating a business and contracts -..............................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION :
The law can be defined as the rules and regulations that created in order to maintain
peace and order in the country. The commercial law are those laws that regulates the trade and
commerce of the country. The Australian Commercial Law outlines the guidelines that are
necessary to be complied by every company who is involved in the trade and commerce in
Australia(Abdullah, (2020)). It specifies that laws related to contract, consumer laws, agency,
torts , insolvency and securities. These laws are made to regularise the commercial range of
transactions in the business. The parliament of Australia is responsible for making commercial
laws in Australia. This report concludes about the statues and case laws that are applicable in
Australia. Moreover, it also studies about the contract law in Australia.
MAIN BODY
Task 1 Finding Law
There are generally various ways through which one can study about the Australian
Commercial laws. These ways includes knowledge from statutory authorities, legal information
and governmental organisations. The FRL (Federal Register of Legislation) is governed and
controlled by the Parliamentary Council of Australia. It specifies about the legislative
instruments that are applicable in the country. The AustLII (Australian Legal Information
Institute) is also an organisation that basically works for the laws of Australia(Blackham and
Allen, (2019)). This organisation helps the citizens to access the primary and secondary
information related to law in the country. Furthermore, the court also provide for the legal
information by the judgements given in cases. Moreover, the Australian Contract law is
derived from the courts of Australia. It is a case law based on English common law. The main
principle of Australian contract law is liberty to contract. There must be the existence of free will
and consent of parties while contracting with each other. They must b e free to bargain to the
conditions in the contract(Doneley, (2018)). Contract law of Australia is a type of case law. The
jurisdiction of contract law applies where the contract is initially created by the parties in
Australia. The contract law basically outlines the conditions where the contract can be created by
the parties. There are generally six main elements present in contract in Australia. The elements

include offer and acceptance, intent to create legal obligations , consideration, legal capacity of
both parties to contract, free consent and void and illegal contracts. It also laid provisions for
breach of contract. The breach of contract occurs when one party of the contract doesn't comply
with the conditions prescribes in the contract. This turns into the breach of rights of the other
party. Moreover, the law also provides for the provisions related to remedies of of breach of
contract (Fraser, (2018)). The remedies includes compensation for damages, injunction,
rescission, specific performance. Generally, the most practicable remedy is monetary
compensation for the damages suffered by the innocent party. The Commonwealth of Australia
Constitution Act 1900 (UK) , is the constitution of Australia. The jurisdiction of this statue is all
over Australia. It is type of statue law. It basically outlines the powers and duties of Australian
government. It further specifies about the fundamental rights and duties of the citizens of
Australia.
The websites through which the above results have been searched are very efficient as
well as effective. These websites are very handy to use and even non experienced person can
also gain information through this. The format of the site is very easily understandable. The
websites provides wide range of knowledge on various legal subjects. It includes several statues
and case laws (Lisk and Zwart, (2019)). The language of the websites are easy to understand and
learn for freshers in legal sector. There are also various links added to the website for better
understanding
Task 2 Business, Law and the Australian Legal System
There are various types of principles and concepts in legal field in Australia. In this
report, the three main principles are discussed here. The first principle is equality before law. The
principle of equality before law ensures that everyone is equal in the eyes of law irrespective of
caste, gender, race, religion, economic difference,etc. This law ensures in the organisation that
every employee is treated equally and no one is discriminated in the company. The second
principle is Freedom of speech. According to this principle every employee in the organisation
has the right to speak for his personal as well as social life. The employee can put forward his
views and opinions in front of the management(Noone and Ojelabi, (2020)). This ensures better
decision taking in the firm. It also increases self esteem of the employee. The third legal

principle is access to justice. This principle states that it is the prime right of every employee to
get justice. In order to ensure this, there are various statues present to protect the rights of the
employees in the company. Generally, all the commercial activities are effected by these
principles. This is because all the statues that are formed is created before putting these
principles. Moreover, if any law is made that does not comply with these principles will be void
in the eyes of law. The commercial laws in Australia like Companies Act 1981, Employment
Services Act, 1994,etc. Are all bound by these basic legal principles. All the provisions of these
acts are bound to fulfil these above written principles. Moreover, the businesses in UK have to
fulfil these basic principles in order to run these businesses smoothly without any legal problems.
The Employment Service Act outlines the principles that is to be followed by every employer
while recruiting the employees(Welmans and Naughton, (2018)). It also provides principles that
is to be followed by the employer and the employee of the company. It also laid the provisions
for recruiting physically disabled persons in the organisation. Hence, all these principles are very
necessary to fulfil the due responsibility towards the nation in an organisation.
Task 3 Operating a business and contracts -
1. Formation of contract-
The contract law of Australia is not a statutory law. It is derived from common law and case
laws. The contract law contains its six basic elements namely offer and acceptance, legal
relations intention of both parties, consideration, free consent, legal capacity to do such contract
of both parties and illegal and void contracts. These basic elements must be fulfilled in order to
make an agreement a contract. If any of these condition is not fulfilled then, there is no creation
of contract between the parties. The principles related to contract law in Australia is freedom to
contract. The Australian contract law is derived from the English law. The freedom to contract
means that parties are free to contract by their free will. It would further mean that no one could
pressurise someone to create a contract without their will. Such a contract will be void in the
eyes of law(WilsonEvered and Zeleznikow, (2021)). In case of Australian Securities and
Investments Commission v Kobelt. This is the case of unconscionable conduct as decided by the
court of Australia.

In the above case scenario, it is very clear that Reverse Swing Sports Goods Pvt
Ltd. cannot be sued by Babe Ruth. This is because the advertisement given by the company of
Jan can only be legally liable for invitation to offer, not offer. The advertisement doesn't
fulfilled all the basic essentials of contract as mentioned in the contract law of Australia. This is
because the first step is to make an offer in contract law which is not fulfilled in this case study.
Jan is not liable to contract due to the following reasons. Firstly, there was no offer to contract
created by the company of Jan in the advertisement. Secondly, no acceptance was given by the
customer for such a contract. Thirdly, there was no existence of intention to create legal
obligations between the parties of the contract. Fourthly, there was no free consent of the parties
in this case. All these major elements are not justified in this present case study. The case study
is also not fulfilling the other essentials of the contract. Hence, the Babe Ruth can't sue Reverse
Swing Sports Goods Ltd. In any condition due to the above mentioned reasons.
2. Terms of contract-
The above case study of Jan is related to contract law of Australia. There is so much need of
understanding the legal matters and commercial matters related to commercial law for Jan. This
is because she is new to the country of Australia and if she don't know about these principles and
laws, it can effect the business into various ways. The commercial reason to understand the
contract law is that without the knowledge of law , the business can go into huge loss. It is the
prime condition that the businessman must know the laws related to contract. This is so as
generally the business of any company runs on the basis of contract. The contract is created
between the buyer and suppliers in the business. Moreover, contract is created between the
wholesaler and the company for the raw material. So, in order to create an efficient contract it is
very necessary that one must have the knowledge of contract law. This can enable the person to
take better decisions for the business. Moreover, this can result into earning more and more
profits for the company. The legal reason for the understanding of contract law is that the
company can have to face legal cases for the non fulfilment of all the condition to contract which
will result into trial cases in the civil courts of the country. Furthermore, it will consume time
and money of the company. As a consequence of this, the company can suffer huge loss.

There is a very huge difference between the express and implied contracts. The expressed terms
are those conditions that are clearly specified in the contract in written form. On the contrary, the
implied terms to contract are those conditions that are not clearly specified in written format in
the contract. The implied terms may include the verbal communication of the terms between the
parties. It also includes the behaviour of the parties. The implied contract can result into the
actions of the parties. The two commercial risks includes the breach of contract between the
parties. In case of implied contract, generally there breach of contract between the parties. This is
because the it is mainly based on trust between the parties as there is no written contract
between the parties. Furthermore, the innocent party generally suffers in the legal cases as due to
the lack of evidence in the contract.
The two dispute resolution in contract law in Australia are ADR (Alternative Dispute
Resolution) and filing the case in tribunal. These two dispute resolutions are generally used in
Australian contract cases. There are various benefits of this type of resolution. The ADR helps in
resolving the case in minimum time without going to court. The parties of the case can go to
ADR even before and after the court trial. The second dispute resolution is by court. The court is
the foremost place to get justice. It works on evidence and it has served justice to the innocent
from the very past.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes about the commercial law in Australia. There are various
principles and case laws that govern the legal sector of the country. Moreover, there are also
various statutes that provide the laws for enabling smooth working of trade and commerce in the
country. Further more, the contract law and dispute resolution is discussed in the report. It also
concludes that Jan cannot be sued by Babe Ruth in the courts of Australia.
REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
Abdullah, N. (2020). Good Faith in Contractual Performance in Australia. Springer Nature.

Blackham, A., & Allen, D. (2019). Resolving discrimination claims outside the courts:
alternative dispute resolution in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Davies, C. (2018). Doping in sport and the issue of defamation in Australia: the successful
actions. Sports Law and Governance Journal, 1(1), 6419.
Doneley, P. (2018). Commercial law: Good faith in Australia: Good intentions are just the
beginning. Proctor, The, 38(7), 16-19.
Fraser, H. (2018). 2017 WA Lee Lecture: The Australian Law of Contractual Penalties. QUT
Law Review, 18(2), 111-136.
Lisk, J., & de Zwart, M. (2019). Watch this space: The development of commercial space law in
Australia and New Zealand. Federal Law Review, 47(3), 444-468.
Noone, M. A., & Ojelabi, L. A. (2020). Alternative dispute resolution and access to justice in
Australia. International Journal of Law in Context, 16(2), 108-127.
Welmans, L., & Naughton, J. (2018). The'interest'based penalty tests
in'Paciocco'and'Cavendish/Parkingeye'and the law of penalties and damages in Australia
and the United Kingdom. University of Western Australia Law Review, 44(1), 174-189.
Wilson-Evered, E., & Zeleznikow, J. (2021). The Evolution of Family Dispute Resolution and
the Need for Online Family Dispute Resolution in Australia. In Online Family Dispute
Resolution (pp. 1-16). Springer, Cham.