Business Law Assignment: Impact of Employment and Corporation Law on Organizations

Running head: BUSINESS LAW ASSIGNMENT
BUSINESS LAW ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Section 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Nature of legal Systems...............................................................................................................3
Question 1....................................................................................................................................3
Section 2..........................................................................................................................................7
Impact of the law on business organizations...............................................................................7
Question 2....................................................................................................................................7
Part 1........................................................................................................................................7
Part 2........................................................................................................................................9
Section 3........................................................................................................................................11
Legal Solutions to Business Problems.......................................................................................11
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................11
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................13
Section 4........................................................................................................................................15
Recommending appropriate legal solutions based upon alternative legal advice.....................15
Question 1..................................................................................................................................15
Question 2 (b)............................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
Reference list:................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Business and commerce in a nation largely depends on the framework of the employment
legislations that govern the workforce. Employment law in the United Kingdom has developed is
over the years towards a more employee rights oriented approach especially with the
embodiment of European Union’s directives in domestic legislation (Hepple 2013). The
following sections of this paper will seek to establish how employment law and corporation law
are linked and analyze their interaction with each other.
Section 1
Nature of legal Systems
Question 1
(a) The legal system of the United Kingdom incorporates Hart’s three part legal system. It does
not have a codified/written constitution yet the British constitution comprises of a bundle of
legislations which define the relationship between individuals and the state as well as the
relationship and interaction between the legislature, executive and judiciary(Kelly and Slapper
2014). The way the legal system functions is statutes are enacted by virtue of legislative powers
stemming from constitutional provisions and once ratified they become law, these laws are
enforced by the executive and in case of disputes these are interpreted by the judiciary. The
various sources of law in the English legal system are statutory law (which comprises of enacted
legislations that have the force of law), common law (common law principles developed through
various judicial decisions) and customs (customary law) (Sheleff 2013). These must be adhered

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to by corporations functioning within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. With regards to
organizations the primary focus is on employment rights and health and safety regulations which
must be followed. Some European Union laws have direct effect inside the jurisdiction of the
United Kingdom. This means that a domestic legislation does not need to be enacted in order for
those laws to have an effect. Thus in the absence of such an effect a domestic legislation needs to
be enacted which can be through primary legislations (Acts) and secondary legislations
(directives) (Hudson 2014).The European Communities Act, 1972 is the primary legislation
which provides for the application of European Union’s laws inside the jurisdiction of the United
Kingdom both directly and indirectly(Nugent 2017).Some of these secondary legislations are the
Parental Leave directive (2010/18/EC), the Part-Time Workers Directive (97/81/EC), the Posted
Workers Directive (96/71/EC), the Race Directive (2000/43/EC) and the Working Time
Directive (2003/88/EC)(Pollack 2015). These are incorporated into the English Legal system
though various legislations namely, Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999,
Employment Rights Act 1996, Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment)
Regulations 2000, Posted Workers (Enforcement of Employment Rights) Regulations 2016,
Equality Act 2010 and Working Time Regulations 1998 (Masupe and Parker 2013).These are the
primary sources of law that organizations need to adhere to and these additionally regulate their
everyday functioning. An organization that seeks to sustain itself must meet the minimum
standards prescribed by employment rights and the health and safety regulations. The
embodiment of these employment rights in the United Kingdom provides a safer and more
hospitable work environment. The Equality Act, 2010 and other related legislations that seek to
regulate differential treatment in the work environment have developed equal employment
opportunities and work environments that are free from harassment. The primary legislations

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which govern business organizations are Partnership Act, 1890, Limited Partnership Act, 1907
and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2000. Corporations within the United Kingdom are
governed by the Companies Act, 2006, Insolvency Act, 1986, Companies Directors
Disqualification Act, 1986 and the Enterprise Act, 2002. These sources of law are more recent
legislations that guide that functioning of corporations within the jurisdiction of the United
Kingdom.
(b) In the United Kingdom the legislature (which is the highest legislative body in the structural
framework) comprises of the parliament (Norton 2013). The parliament is responsible for the
regulation of the working of the government and it is additionally tasked with formulating,
debating on and eventually enacting new laws within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.
The parliament in the English legal system comprises of two houses namely, the House of
Commons and the House of Lords(Birch 2013).The House of Commons is made up of MPs and
the House of Lords comprises of members who’re appointed by the government (consisting of
various hereditary positions and appointed positions including the senior most Bishop of the
Church of England (Budge et al. 2013). The law making process is the formulation of a bill,
which once formulated, is voted on by both the houses of parliament. If both the houses vote in
favour of the bill it forms an Act and thus acquires the force of law(Blackburn 2016). A bill that
is not consented to by the House of Lords can still acquire the force of law if it is re-introduced
before the House of Commons (Chapman and Hunt 2013).A bill is a draft containing instructions
of the proposed areas that are to be covered by the piece of legislation and the implications and
effects that the proposed law would ideally have. A bill is drafted by the Parliamentary Counsel
to treasury which consists of civil lawyers. This is the first step to the enactment of a new law. A
bill maybe of three distinct types, namely, public bill, private members bill and private bill

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depending on the kind of legislation sought to be enacted(Norton 2015). Once a bill is drafted the
next step undertaken is the first reading of the bill where the contents and implications are read
out to the House of Commons. The second reading is the next step in the process where the bill is
debated and amended by the MPs and it is then voted on by the House of Commons. The bill is
then sent to the House of Commons Committee for scrutiny and they determine if the bill
requires further amendments this is called the Committee stage. The committee prepares a report
detailing the various implications of the bill and the debates and amendments that have been
made till this point and the bill is then sent back to the House of Commons for the third reading
(Porritt and Porritt 2014). The third reading is the last stage undertaken before the bill is sent to
the House of Lords. In this stage the acceptance or rejection of the bill is voted on by the House
of Commons after short debates on it (if there are any). In the next stage the bill is sent to the
House of Lords where it repeats this cycle of stages and is amended and voted on by the House
of Lords and sent back to the House of Commons for scrutiny of the amendments made (Russell
2013).The final stage in the law making process is obtaining Royal Ascent, this refers to the
approval of the monarch. Once obtained the bill acquires the force of law and becomes an Act.
This is the government’s role in the law making process. This forms the basis of statutory law in
the United Kingdom. Statutory law is however just one of the sources of law and does not
encompass the entire legal system (De Lacy 2013).Common law principles are also incorporated
into the legal system of the United Kingdom. Common law is developed through judicial
precedents, these are judgments delivered relating to common law duties. These precedents are
binding on the courts and must be considered when adjudicating on a given set of circumstances.
Thus, statutory law and common law needs to be harmoniously interpreted when delivering
judgments within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom (Craig 2015).