Business Law and Ethics: Contractual Obligations and Remedies

This report provides a brief description of contract law and the remedies available in case of breach of contract. It also discusses the case of Raymond and Samantha and the application of the doctrine of promissory estoppel. Learn more about business law and ethics.

Business Law and
Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business law also known as commercial law is a group of laws which regulates conduct
of people associated with business and commerce activities and covers all the rules and
regulations applicable on businesses such as contract law, company law, IPR and many more. It
regulates corporate contracts, manufacturing and sales of goods and services and hiring practices.
Contract law is a law enforced between the parties entering into a valid contract and covers all
the rules, regulations and rights of the parties and all the responsibility or legislations the parties
are bound to follow to frame a proper and legal contract(Nuna, Kodai and Moonti 2020).
Contract law provides for the remedies available to the parties in case of breach of contract.
Further, business ethics refers to the appropriate organisational principles, standards, values,
policies and norms which regulates or govern the behaviour and actions of individuals in the
business and mainly covers subject of controversial matters like fiduciary responsibility,
discrimination, corporate social responsibility, etc. The business ethics helps in increasing
productivity and also raise moral of employees in business. This report provides a brief
description about the contract law and the remedies available to the parties in case of breach of
contract with the case of Raymond and Samantha. In short it contains all about the breach of
contractual relations and its remedies(Rauf, 2020).
Main Body
A Contract is a legal agreement between two or more parties by following certain
essentials of a contract i.e. offer made by one party to another, acceptance of the offer and a
consideration for entering into a contract, without which a contract cannot be enforced(Brunelli
and Di Carlo2020). Further, to enforce a contract an offer should be made by one party which
should be accepted by the another party and to enter into a valid contract, that contract must have
a consideration as no contract is made without consideration hence there should be a proper
discussion regarding it and must have a intention to bind in a legal relationship for the purpose of
the contract. Contract law plays an important role in a business to keep the business secured by
framing appropriate agreements and also provide security and confidentiality to investors as law
provides for all the remedies in case of any breach in contract(Ganesan and Thambusamy, 2020).
The remedies provided under this act are sue for damages, specific performance of contracts,
injunction orders etc.

In this case, Raymond has a small consultancy business related to taxation. Raymond and
Samantha enter into a contract to draft a business account of Samantha and she will pay £800 for
the work as consideration after completion of work to Raymond. After finishing work, Samantha
said to Raymond that she can afford only £200 and denied to pay £800. Raymond admits to
accept £200 as full settlement of his payment. Later Raymond comes to know from the
newspaper that Samantha's painting begin to sell at good prices and he wishes to recover the
remaining amount of £600.
Raymond and Samantha entered into a valid contract as all the essential elements are
present in this contract. Samantha made an offer and Raymond accepted it for a consideration of
£800 and there was an intention to bind in a legal obligation.
Contract law provides various remedies such as, Repudiation also called anticipatory
breach in which one party denies to perform the work when it was suppose to be done after
entering into a contract due to which the another party suffers a loss or a damage and this is a
basic breach of contract(Maseko and Masinire, 2020). Recession of contract is a contract in
which the party who made the offer fails to complete any obligation due to which the other party
refuse to perform the contract. This is the case when the work to be done cannot be completed
without fulfilling the obligation. Sue for damages is a legal remedy in which one party broke the
promise due to which another party suffers loss or any kind of damage and then they claim for
compensation for the losses incurred. This remedy helps the party to compensate the losses
incurred to them(Mason, and Megone 2020). Specific performance is a just remedy available in
all judgements of court in which they order to the party to complete its contractual obligations as
soon as possible. Restitutionary award is a monetary award in which court marks their decision
on the basis of condition and gains of defendant and not the basis of loss or damage suffered by
the plaintiff here(Martin, 2020). Injunction is a remedy in which a person is restrained to do a
particular act. In the above case of Raymond and Samantha, the remedies available for Raymond
are Sue for damages and Specific performance of contract.
A counter offer is an additional offer to be made during negotiation of a contract. Once
counter offer is made during the negotiation of contract it will cancel the original offer which
was made when parties enter into contract(Delgado-Alemany, Blanco-González and Díez-Martín
2020). It is supported from the case of Hyde v. Wrench in which court held that once counter
offer is made it cancels the original offer and it is not available for the party to accept it later. In

the discussed case if Samantha had paid £200 few weeks earlier then it will be a counter offer
from her side to Raymond and he shall have the option to accept it or not. Raymond will not
choose an offer for such low consideration.
If Raymond demands for £400 as a final settlement from Samantha then it will be a
different position according to the law as the original offer is made by Raymond of £800 and
then Samantha can provide a counter offer to Raymond of £200 and after that the Raymond
demands of £400 then Samantha has the option to either accept or reject the offer. If Samantha
says yes to the offer it will constitute the contract and all prior offers will be destructed and if
Samantha denies to pay £400 to Raymond then there will be the breach of contract. Later,
Raymond will have the right to claim it as Samantha was agreed on the prior offer and constitute
a contract.
In the given situation when Raymond wants to claim its remaining amount of £600 only because
he come to know from the help of newspaper that she has earned a lot from her paintings which
are sold in £20000. When Samantha made counter offer Raymond had the chance whether to
accept it or to reject it and Raymond had already agreed on that counter offer for his full and
final settlement so he does not have any right to claim that remaining balance as here applies the
doctrine of promissory estoppel(Torelli, and Balluchi 2020). This doctrine is used under a case of
Central London Property Trust v. High Tree House, in which Lord Denning held that if promise
is made between the parties then even a small amount accepted or no consideration even
accepted instead of large amount will be bind on both the parties. This doctrine is enforced to
prevent the rights of the aggrieved party in the contract law but not executed as a contract law.
This doctrine stated that promise is a legal situation which is used by law even at the situation of
no formal consideration made between the parties(Bietti, 2020). On the basis of same doctrine
applicable on the above case Samantha will not be liable to pay £600 as Raymond had accepted
the counter offer made by Samantha of £200 as full payment earlier and this acceptance is
considered as promise to not demand the remaining amount later. So, on the grounds of the
doctrine of promissory estopple, it is held that Samantha is not liable to pay any amount to
Raymond and Raymond cannot demand the remaining amount from Samantha.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is clear that Business laws explains all legal formalities which are
necessary to be kept in mind to involve in any business activity and gives proper rules and
regulations to be followed in business. It includes various laws, legislations, rules, regulations
and various norms which are applicable on the business(Foley, 2020). It also includes contract
laws as the business is completely based on the agreement between different parties. Contract
law provides with all the agreements held between two or more parties with their conditions
which are applicable to enter into a valid contract. It also helps business in bringing
confidentiality among the parties or the workers there(Aguirre, Hyman and Jones, 2020). On the
other hand business ethics includes all the standards, values, norms and polices on the social
responsibility and ethical behaviour for running a business. This report provides that the
contractual obligations bind two parties in a legal framework to prevent the occurrence of breach
of contract. The law provide for certain remedies to stop breach of contract. In the case of
Raymond and Samantha, the law applies here is a doctrine of promissory estoppel between the
parties as earlier the promise has been made which works as a remedy for the parties.

REFRENCES
Books and Journals:
Rauf, A.A., 2020. New moralities for new media? Assessing the role of social media in acts of
terror and providing points of deliberation for business ethics. Journal of Business
Ethics, pp.1-23.
Ganesan, R.S. and Thambusamy, R.X., 2020. Ethics in Business: A Case Study of a
Pharmaceutical Company. The European Journal of Social & Behavioural
Sciences, 28(2), pp.3144-3149.
Maseko, K.N. and Masinire, A., 2020. Trainee accountants' perceptions of the usefulness of the
business ethics curriculum: A case of SAICA in South Africa. South African Journal of
Higher Education, 34(4), pp.130-154.
Delgado-Alemany, R., Blanco-González, A. and Díez-Martín, F., 2020. Ethics and Deontology
in Spanish Public Universities. Education Sciences, 10(9), p.259.
Torelli, R. and Balluchi, F., 2020. Business Legitimacy, Agricultural Biodiversity and
Environmental Ethics: Insights from Sustainable Bakeries. Handbook of Business
Legitimacy, Forthcoming.
Foley, J.P., 2020. Ethics in Internet. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 32(1/2), pp.179-192.
Mason, S. and Megone, C. eds., 2020. European neonatal research: consent, ethics committees
and law. Routledge.
Martin, G., 2020. Rethinking the Content of Ethics Education Courses. In Educating for Ethical
Survival. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Bietti, E., 2020, January. From ethics washing to ethics bashing: a view on tech ethics from
within moral philosophy. In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness,
Accountability, and Transparency (pp. 210-219).
Aguirre, G.C., Hyman, M.R. and Jones, J.L., 2020. DEDICATED MARKETING ETHICS
COURSE: DESIGN AND TEST. Marketing Education Review, 30(3), pp.177-194.
Brunelli, S. and Di Carlo, E., 2020. Accountability, Ethics and Sustainability of
Organizations. Accounting, Finance, Sustainability, Governance and Fraud: Theory
and Application. Chapters, 4, pp.82-123.
Nuna, M., Kodai, D.A. and Moonti, R.M., 2020. Code Of Ethics And The Role Of Advocates In
Providing Legal Aid To The Poor. Indonesian Journal Of Advocacy And Legal
Services, 1(2), pp.259-274.