Business Law and Ethical Considerations

This assignment delves into the intersection of the English legal system and business practices. It explores key areas such as contract law, company structures, intellectual property rights, and the legal framework governing employee relations. The analysis emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct in business, highlighting issues like harassment, equality, and unfair termination practices. The assignment draws upon relevant academic sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of these legal and ethical dimensions within the business context.

Business law

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................1
P1 Structure of the English legal system and different sources of laws.................................1
P2 Role of government in law-making and application of statutory and common law.........3
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................4
P3 (a) Employers obligation in relations to:...........................................................................4
P3(b) Relevant employment laws and contract law that have potential impact on business. 5
SECTION 3......................................................................................................................................6
P4 Appropriate legal solutions for above business problems.................................................6
P5 Justification for solutions provided for business problems...............................................7
SECTION 4......................................................................................................................................7
P6 (a) Concepts and benefits of using alternative dispute resolution process........................7
P6 (b) Recommendation of alternative legal solutions to the business problem....................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business laws are the legislation related to the operations of business, employment
condition, rights and resolution of disputes. It involves statutory, common and civil laws for aby
type of organisation to comply with. English legal framework mainly deals with the legislations,
common laws and European laws. It is statutory framework that is applicable within the
jurisdiction of two countries such as England and Wales. In this report, different source of law in
UK have been discussed. Further, role of government in making laws have been discussed along
the legal procedure which is followed by them. At last, various case studies related to business
and employment have been considered to analyse solution that can be applied to them.
SECTION 1
P1 Structure of the English legal system and different sources of laws.
As per simple concept of law, the major function of legal system is to develop and
maintain the basic structure of the society with some enlisted behaviours. English legal
framework mainly deals with the legislations, common laws and European laws (Scheuer, 2015).
It is statutory framework that is applicable within the jurisdiction of two countries such as
England and Wales. It is usually different from other foreign countries who are members of
European Union and it is based on the civil law structure. English legal system is not identified
as separate for England and Wales because it has been developed by the previous political
unions, designed by the same previous independent countries. This system has been applied by
the justice in court to resolve the cases of civil laws and criminal laws. Legislations are the part
of legal system which has been developed by government by taking acceptance of parliament of
UK. Structure of this system has been divided in two main jurisdiction which are mentioned
below:
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Illustration 1: English legal structure
(Source: UK Court Structure, 2018)
Purpose of these courts in legal system is different because they are established to deal
with different type of cases and provide judgements. Magistrate court is lower court, deal with
the cases as well as perpetration to the crown court. It usually holds the simple cases of civil laws
which involves the family preceding bodies along with the youth courts. Crown courts are upper
than magistrates, consider chargeable criminal cases that has been extremely transferred from the
magistrates courts of justice (Bartlett, Rhode and Grossman, 2016). Hearing of serious criminal
law cases have been undertaken in these courts and cases have sent for sentencing as well as
appeals. County courts have to deal with the most complex and most of the civil important
cases. High courts mainly consist of three important divisions such as companies, divisional and
administrative court etc. Court of appeal is the judiciary body that consist two main divisions
such as civil and criminal. It provides judgement on the appeal made from the high courts and
hears the appeal concerning with the civil laws and family justice. Last and foremost apex body
of legal system is Supreme Court which has replaced the House of Lords as the highest court in
England and Wales. It hears the appeal from the court of appeal and the high courts only in some
situations. Decision provided by the Supreme Court has been considered as final and needs to be
abided by all the parties.
There are various sources of law in English legal system such as acts of parliaments
which are created by legislature of UK which are considered as two houses of parliament.
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Parliamentary boards are the apex bodies as they have the power to provide on acceptance on
any law with country. International court of justice is also important source of law as it plays
important role in development and handling the international trade legislations and also deals
with offence and legal conflict submitted by nations. Further, common laws are case laws which
have taken from the judgements of courts on some critical civil and criminal cases, which have
now become an important part of law. European courts is also considered as apex body of law
for European union member countries, associated with the regulations and rules made for
regulation of business operations in European markets.
P2 Role of government in law-making and application of statutory and common law
Every organisation needs to follow and abide by process of law which has been created
and set up by government in order to develop statutory provision for business. Government also
plays important role in making laws and legislations as they have power to consider all cases and
consider the requirement special provision to resolve those cases (Bates, 2016). Constitutions
has provided as specific legal procedure that needs to be followed by government in order to
develop provisions by taking acceptance of parliamentary boards such as House of lords and
house of commons etc. Below given is the procedure that has to be followed by government like:
 First readings: Considered as proposal stage in which bill has been proposed for the first
in front of House of Commons and information about requirement of legal provision for
common law cases have been transferred to members of parliaments.
 Second readings: Discussion has been made on the provisions or laws that need to be
formulated by government. Copy of bill has been transferred all the members of
parliament so that they will consider its requirements and its benefits as well as
consequences on country and people. Discussion on bill ends with voting to make
decision whether it needs to progress or not.
 Committee stage: Amendments have been proposed by MPs at this in the provisions of
bill after the cross examination of bill by specialized group of individuals in parliament or
a committee. Which may includes solicitors, judges and MPs etc.
 Report stage: After making amendments, bill has been represented by ministers in
parliament and changes have been reported to house (Gillespie, 2013). Further, MPs will
again consider the bill and committee who was involved in previous stage. Suggestion
has been provided by them in order to propose and apply relevant changes.
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 Third reading: Mainly involves the discussion that has been made before providing
acceptance on bill by members of parliaments and ministers. Changes proposed have
been made in the bill and then it will be approval from House of Commons and
transferred to House of Lords.
 Approval stage: After the getting approval from House of Lords, bill has been
transferred to queen bench for getting royal assent. Further, Queen will provide her
acceptance after getting information about requirements and amendments which have
been made from the minister.
Conversion into act: By getting royal assent, bill has been converted in to act of parliaments.
Then it becomes a statutory law.
Applicability of common law: These case laws usually applied by the judges while providing
judgements on the similar cases or situations with the help of private and public bills. For
example: new business enterprise needs to abide by the laws like companies act, payment of
wages and employments right acts etc.
Commercial law applicability: These are the laws usually applied with the commercial business
enterprise which operate their business within the boundaries of England and Wales etc. For
example: sales of goods act is common that needs to be abide by all the companies while selling
their products and services to consumers.
SECTION 2
P3 (a) Employers obligation in relations to:
 Occupational health and safety act 1974: Some important provisions have been given in
this act that needs to be followed by employers of organisations related to the health and
safety of employees at workplace. According to this, employers are bound to safe
handling and provide information about the powerful and dangerous equipment to their
employees. It is also responsible to conduct health check-up camps for employees along
with maintenance of positive work environment, plans and systems.
 Workers compensation act 1987: The act states that employers needs to provide fair
compensation as well as benefits to its employees in case health issues and injuries
(Morley, 2016). They need to develop special incentives and compensation policies for
individual working extra from more than stipulated time duration. Employers also needs
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to provide some allowance to employees other than salary like House rent allowance,
insurance, transportation and food allowance etc.
 Harassment act 1997: Employers obligation in relation to harassment is that they need to
provide security to their employees from activities of harassment such as extra working,
religious and sexual harassment with women etc (Uysal, 2014). Employers needs to
develop special rule regarding this and must take strict actions against suspects. They also
need to provide awareness for psychological, sexual and physical harassment among its
employees.
 Equality act 2010: This act have been developed for the benefits of individuals working
in organisation. It states that no discrimination has been to be made by employers
between organisations on the basis on race, gender, religion, disability etc. Employers are
obligated to provide equal opportunities to individuals for applying and selecting the pre
employment phase. Employees must get equal chance for training and development
programs.
P3(b) Relevant employment laws and contract law that have potential impact on business.
The act consists of provision regarding health and safety of employees working in
organisation effectively. From the above case study, it has been analysed that girl was having an
16 years who was working in the fast food outlet of cooking fries which is considered illegal as
child labour act and under employment act (Wilson and et.al., 2014). According to health and
safety act, employers are obliged to keep all safety arrangement at workplace and provide
information to employees regrading that but in this case no safe equipments was their and team
members who was having the responsibility to handle the other employees was not available at
workplace. According to compensation act 1987, employers is obligated to provide
compensation to employees in case of health issues and injury at workplace. Therefore, it is
considered that employers has violated the rule of underemployment for which strict will be
taken against company. It has also violated rule of health and safety act by not keeping any
safety arrangement at workplace. Thus, it can be said company is liable to provide compensation
to girl for medical treatment and liable to face restrictions as per provisions under law.
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SECTION 3
P4 Appropriate legal solutions for above business problems.
a) From the above scenario, it has been considered that Calvin who was the employees from
4 years in fashion store was terminated by her employers by making allegation of theft and
without taking any analysis of the truth. It was situation of unfair dismissal which is act of
termination made without any goof reason or contrary to countries specific legislation (Scheuer,
2015). According to the case, Donna has terminated his employee because she found him acting
suspiciously and then checked the petty cash box and discover that £100 was missing. Despite
from the fact that four other employees was also their in the vicinity at the time but Donna has
not asked any question from other employees and directly terminated Calvin by saying that she
would not have a thief like him working in the premises any more. As per employment
employers cannot terminated their employee without any good or specific reason etc. Thus, it
provides the right to Calvin that he can file complaint against employers for a charge of unfair
dismissal and strict action will be taken against his employers. As per law, only those employees
are liable to get compensation who against unfair dismissal who have completed minimum two
of employment within organisation. Thus, it is also clear that Calvin is qualified to get
compensation from employers if will found not guilty any circumstance.
b) Second scenario provides an understanding that Kelvin's father who was owner of the
convenience store who has a situation in which his store was completely destroyed by the fire.
After that. Mr. Dan has eventually opened a new store at different location and applied for the
fire insurance. At time of filling the insurance proposal form he was asked that to provide
confirmation he has not made any insurance claim before 2 years and Mr. dan without having
accurate information have thought that he has claimed his first claim before two years but it was
in fact 23 months ago. After that same situation happened and his store was completely
destroyed by fire and at the time filing claim insurance company had refused to pay the claim by
saying that Mr. dan has provided them wrong information . According to contract law, parties
involved in contract needs to provide correct information while filing the terms of contract which
makes the contract valid (Bacon, 2017). It is also required that both the parties must agree with
the terms in order to make contract valid. But in this Mr. Dan has provided wrong information
without having relevant information . Thus, it is clear that insurance company is not liable to pay
nay damage to Mr. Dan and also file complaints against him for providing wrong information.
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P5 Justification for solutions provided for business problems.
a) From the first case, it has been justified that termination of Calvin from the fashion store
by employers Mrs Donna was the not correct and considered as unfair dismissal because
employers has not fulfilled the terms of employment. As per employment rights, employers are
not able terminate their employees without any good or reasonable reason as well as justification.
Calvin in this case has the right to demand for trial in court against employers to prove himself
clean and subject of unfair dismissal (Michalos, 2017). Employers in this case needs to make an
investigation regarding the situation for getting the fact and proof against the employees. If the
employees Calvin founds guilty, then employers has the right to terminate him after serving the
notice period. Further, if the employees is not found guilty, then he will have the right to take
compensation from employer. According to terms of unfair dismissal act only those employees
are liable for compensation who have completed 2 years of employment in organisation and it is
clearly stated that Calvin was working from last 4 years. Thus, he is able to get the compensation
from employee against the charge of unfair dismissal.
b) In this case, contract law has been applied which is statutory made by the parliament in order
to regulate business and other operation within industry. According to provision of contract law,
it is clear that parties entered in to a contract needs to provide valid and correct information
regarding the terms of contract. Case study has already provided an understanding that Mr.Dan
has provided wrong information to the insurance company in proposal form that he has made
insurance claim 2 years ago but actually it was 23 month ago. It was also found that wrong
einformation was provided by him unintentional by without having correct information.
Therefore, as per contract law, insurance company is not liable to pay any compensation for the
losses to Mr. Dan.
SECTION 4
P6 (a) Concepts and benefits of using alternative dispute resolution process.
Alternative dispute resolution is the process which has been provided by the law for
traders and consumers to resolve dispute without involving the trail of court. This process can
only applied in the small cases. This process has also been encouraged by the government which
is effective to resolve the all kinds of trade disputes and organisation who are committed to
provide good service to their customers. Problem have been resolved with mutual interaction
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without involving any legal procedure with legal consent of parties. It includes some forms
which are as follows:
 Conciliation and mediation: Mediation is an effective process of resolving dispute in
which parties can appoint a neutral person, considered as mediator to resolve the dispute.
Mediator provides his decision after considering the fact of both the parties (Besley,
2015). Collective bargaining is different from mediation because in this representative of
both the parties will meet and interact on the problems and make a compromise to settle
dispute without damaging the business relationship. Both process is effective as they take
less time and costs to resolve dispute.
 Adjudication: Effective part of ADR in which the dispute have been resolved by the
parties by involving one person or legal advisor who will consider all the facts and
provide them valid decisions. It will be a law expert which is approved by the chartered
institute of arbitration and concentrates on the area which is causing complains and
problems.
 Arbitration: It is also similar process but more formal as compared to adjudication
because in this company appoint an independent person called arbitrate which is usually
from the CIARB to make a decision about complains. It is based upon paper evidence
which is sent by traders and customers effectively. Decision provided by Arbitrator after
considering the fact is considered as final and bind to be followed by all the parties.
P6 (b) Recommendation of alternative legal solutions to the business problem.
Within business there are some many situations will arise in which alternative dispute
resolution process will be applied by companies to resolve the dispute. In this case, Antwon who
was owner the owner of large investment firm has its business relationship with the Tyrell,
owner software development company. Tyrell used to provide software for employees of
Antwon which are used to make market prediction. Reason behind the dispute was that the
employees of investment firm has found that software are not working effective and provide
wrong information. Therefore, they have made complaint regarding software to the Antwon. .
The
dispute has gone on for several weeks but the parties have been unable to come to a satisfactory
solution. It is also identified that both the parties Antwon and Tyrell are not willing to break
their relationship as it was beneficial for both of them. Thus, in order to resolve this situation
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parties can apply the process of collective bargaining in which the employees of company will
interact with the representative or engineers of tyre ll about the problems which are faced by
them in software and after checking if they found problem can be corrected then improvement
will be done in software (Slapper and Kelly, 2013). And if not so then the Tyre-ll has provided
compensation taken by him against software to the Antwon. It can be done through mutual
understand and will take less time to resolve the dispute.
CONCLUSION
In this report, it is concluded that business laws and legislation plays an important role
towards regulations of smooth business operations within country. English legal system is a
statutory framework which is developed by political unions for resolution of problems and
contains court and tribunal which aims to resolve the disputes. There are various laws and
legislation have analysed which are taken from common law, acts of parliaments, international
court and European court etc. There various obligation of employers related to compensation,
health and safety harassment and equality that needs to be considered and followed by them. At
last , it is also analysed that termination is considered a unfair when the employers will terminate
without having good reason.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bacon, M., 2017. Taking care of business: police detectives, drug law enforcement and
proactive investigation. Oxford University Press.
Bartlett, K.T., Rhode, D.L. and Grossman, J.L., 2016. Gender and law: Theory, doctrine,
commentary. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Bates, D.R., 2016. Do Teacher Pay for Performance Schemes Advance American Education:
What Education and Business Can Learn from Each Other in the Education Reform
Movement. Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev., 7, p.547.
Besley, T., 2015. Law, regulation, and the business climate: The nature and influence of the
World Bank Doing Business project. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 29(3). pp.99-120.
Gillespie, A., 2013. The English legal system. Oxford University PressMichalos, A.C., 2017.
The loyal agent’s argument. How Good Policies and Business Ethics Enhances Good
Quality of Life: The Selected Works of Alex C. Michalos, p.53.
Michalos, A.C., 2017. The loyal agent’s argument. How Good Policies and Business Ethics
Enhances Good Quality of Life: The Selected Works of Alex C. Michalos, p.53.
Morley, J., 2016. The Common Law Corporation: The Power of the Trust in Anglo-American
Business History. Columbia Law Review, pp.2145-2197.
Scheuer, L., 2015. The Legal Marijuana Industry's Challenge for Business Entity Law. Wm. &
Mary Bus. L. Rev. 6 p.511.
Scheuer, L., 2015. The Legal Marijuana Industry's Challenge for Business Entity Law. Wm. &
Mary Bus. L. Rev. 6 p.511.
Slapper, G. and Kelly, D., 2013. The English Legal System: 2012-2013. Routledge.
Uysal, G., 2014. Taylor, HRM, strategic HRM with jobs, employee performance, business
performance relationship: HR governance through 100 years.
Wilson and et.al., 2014. English Legal System. Oxford University Press.
Online
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UK Court Structure, 2018. [Online]. Available through:<http://new.justcite.com/kb/editorial-
policies/terms/uk-court-structure/>
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