Understanding UK Business Law: Classifications, Sources, and Impact on Commercial Organizations

This article provides an overview of UK business law, including its classifications and sources. It also explores the impact of UK law on commercial organizations, with a focus on employment laws. The article discusses the UK legal system and the law-making process, as well as specific acts and regulations that affect businesses and workers.

Business law

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 THE UK CLASSIFICATIONS OF LAWS...............................................................................3
1).................................................................................................................................................3
2. The characteristics of the two main classifications of laws in UK.........................................3
3. Three different legal systems in UK.......................................................................................4
2.0 THE UK SOURCE OF LAW....................................................................................................6
1)The hierarchy of the principal sources of laws in the English legal system............................6
2) characteristics of the sources of laws......................................................................................6
3) the influence of the respective laws on the multilingual organisation....................................6
3.0 THE UK LAW MAKING PROCESS HAVE A DIRECT IMPACT ON COMMERCIAL
ORGANISATIONS.........................................................................................................................7
Employment law.........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

1.0 THE UK CLASSIFICATIONS OF LAWS
1)
As we all know that law plays a vital role for the any country or state, it refers to the fundamental
doctrine in which people living in the country or state used to follow the policies and systems set
by the government. The UK laws is the longest established law which has been made to guide
people. The sets of policies and guidelines that allows the citizens of UK to follow the conditions
so that it would provide benefits to them (Price, 2021). The rule of law is that every individual
must understand the importance of human rights and helps to have protection in world where
discrimination is taking place at a high pace. There are various types of law which needs to be
followed such as constitutions, cases, regulations and statutes. These laws are basically issued by
official bodies for the betterment of country. The powers of law making has been divided among
3 branches of government such as judicial, executive and legislative. In general laws in the UK
are made for the rights of people. The most essential law in the UK is statute law the major
reason behind this is that: this law is the mechanism through which major constitutional reforms
are being made. It is made by parliament for the betterment.
2. The characteristics of the two main classifications of laws in UK
Basically, UK law is classified into 2 major parts such as public law and private law. The
private law governs the relationships between private company and the people living in the
country. While on the other side, public law is made for the betterment of public which governs
the relationship between the state and a citizen living in the country. Also, under the common
law system of the UK, these laws are further categorized into federal and state levels which
includes civil and criminal laws.
Criminal laws- this laws is made up for the people who used to commit the crime and
take actions to harm the public living in the country. This law has been made in order to protect
the people and also provide punishment to the criminal who have committed crime such as
murder. These crimes committed against society even when the actual victim is any
organisational business or any individual or group of individuals. Depends on the crime type the

court used to provide rigorous punishment such as some kind of penalties and take any strict
actions.
Characteristics of the criminal law
 This is one of the best law which has been made by the UK government to provide the
punishment to the criminal.
 With the help of criminal law, justice can be given to the offender and punish by legal
actions to the guilty.
 This law is guiding people about what they can do and cannot do and take actions for
criminals to prison.
Civil laws- the another law which has the best influence on people is known as civil laws
which used to deal with the any kind of disputes between the organisation and people or group of
people. The cases in which compensation related issues or any kind of agreement that is related
to financial terms is comes under civil laws (Arrowsmith, 2018). The cases related to
compensation issued are being filed by the private parties as they are facing issues and want
justice. The court has the power to take decision related to this cases and used to give decisions
for those people who is the offender. Here, cases related to property, agreement between those
parties and has been filed for justice.
Characteristics of the civil laws-
 Talking about the features of civil laws, these laws has been made for the non-criminal
cases. These laws are a codified set of legal regulations, rules and principles
 Basically, it is cases for getting the compensation of injury in order to provide
punishment.
 The law has been organised in the systematic process written codes that provide support
to offender.
3. Three different legal systems in UK
On the basis of justice system and the constitution law there are total three different
separate legal systems in the UK.
Northern Ireland- law related to Northern Ireland is a common and important law system.
Basically, it is administered by the Northern Ireland courts with the support and appeal taken to
the supreme court of UK in criminal and civil matter both. It is same as English law, the policies

and regulations which has been made are closely related and imported into the kingdom of
Ireland. The courts of this legal system is headed and issued by the courts of judicature that
involves high court and crown court and also courts of appeal.
England and wales- the laws refers to the legal systems and principles administrated by the
England and wales courts, which rule on both the important matters such as criminal and civil.
Basically, it is based on the common law principles (Mirmohammad Sadeghi, Rahmati and
Niyazabadi, 2018). It is having own legal doctrine. This legal system is headed by the senior
courts of wales and England consisting of the court of appeal, crown court and high court of
justice.
Scotland- an ancient basis in roman law is known as Scotland law and legal systems is a
unique one. It is well known for its features elements of common law with medieval sources
which can also be called as mixed legal system. Here the courts are high court, supreme court
and court of session who make appeal for civil cases under the law of scots.

2.0 THE UK SOURCE OF LAW
1)The hierarchy of the principal sources of laws in the English legal system
As we have discussed before laws are very important for the betterment of the country, it
has been referred as the policies and regulations which helps in governing the human being’s
behaviour in the community. There are majorly two sources of law in the English legal system
that is secondary and primary. Basically, primary sources of law include case law which also
termed as legislations. The case in the English legal system law rules of equity and betterment of
people. Talking about legislation, it is being referred as the laws related to English legal system
is being created by the legislature which can involve acts of parliament. All the decisions have
been made by the courts and powers are with them only. Here, judge takes to power to decide
about judgements (Palombo, 2019). Not only this, principles of binding precedent are also
included in it. Book of authority is also one of the most important source of laws which needs to
be taken consideration while talking about English legal system. Book of authority is referred as
the term being used for referring a number of early lawful textbooks by the legal writers in the
context of UK.
2) characteristics of the sources of laws
 The major features of this laws is that it is based on the doctrines of stare decisive and
most related with jurisdiction which is included on the basis of English common law.
 The case law rules of equity and common law- It also keeps record of judgement passed
by the law and helps in decision making process relating to equity law. The laws are not strict rules of law in the context of parliamentary conventions.
3) the influence of the respective laws on the multilingual organisation
This type of firms which have given employment opportunities to various kind of people
from different culture and backgrounds that have different languages and religion. In these types
organisation, respective laws have been followed for the betterment of people (Arrowsmith,
2018). Also, various legislations, books of authority and court of law which needs to be complied
by the businesses relating to multilingual context.

3.0 THE UK LAW MAKING PROCESS HAVE A DIRECT IMPACT ON
COMMERCIAL ORGANISATIONS
Employment law
In today’ world, laws are very important for providing support to people and protect
businesses and people operating in the organisations. as we have discussed policies and laws
have been implemented to control how businesses in the UK operate and how they make their
functions smooth. In the UK, laws can be imposed by the government and higher authority such
as senior courts. By having employment related laws the UK business and industries can provide
support to the workers who works effectively for the betterment of business. With the help of
laws relating to health and wellbeing of employees the company can easily protect staff members
and encourage them towards business goals. It has been said that when the employees think
about working they always see whether organisation is able to provide them protection or not
(Sternlight, 2019). In this way the UK law making process have a direct impact on commercial
organisation. As we all know that the main purpose of commercial organisation law is to meet
the demands and preference of business community and operations they made. Not only this,
with the help of employment laws the organisation can support activities relating to employees
and business both. It has been said that when organisation is not following any kind of laws and
rules then they have to face some kind of legal issues which can hinder their reputation and
performance of employees. Not only this it can hinder the morale of staff members which is not
beneficial for the company (Mello, 2019). Basically, employment rules are being made for the
betterment of employees and employers and to protect them from harmful activities that can take
place in workplace such as bullying, discrimination, cultural differences issues and many more.
Employment laws are being established to protect the safety and health of employees at
workplace in the UK so that it can create positive working environment and help people work
effectively for the business success. every business entity must ensure that workers health is
more important and is not affected by their work and activities takes place (Galvin, 2019). By
having employment laws managers can protect workers’ rights at workplace which can motivate
people to work energetically. Nowadays, organisations are implementing and focusing on
various kind of act which has provided them a great support and developed for the betterment of
professionals.

Equal pay act 1970
In today’s business world, where competition is very high we all can see that there are
some organisation where inequality practice is more and there are few organisation where they
treat women and men equal and pay on the basis of their work. The commercial organisations in
the UK are focusing on equal pay act as it can help employees to work effectively with
confidence and they feel valued (Estlund, 2018). Employers who work equally they must receive
the same amount of money in the same workplace whether they are males or females they must
be equally treated. By this positive working environment can be obtained which helps achieve
successful goals. When employees feel they are supported by the company in every aspect such
as wages, equal pay for contribution and so on, it can foster their work performance and reduce
conflict in the workplace. While on the other side, if females or males of the firm are getting fair
pay as per their contribution then they are more likely to work effectively which helps in
economic growth too.
Various acts
With the help of employment law, organisation can prevent discrimination and promote
health and safety via act like health and safety act 1974. These laws are specially made for the
wellbeing of the people working at workplace. By following these laws, the company ensure that
employees health and mental stated is not at all impacted by their work in negative manner.
Another important act which has been made for the betterment of employees is fair labour
standards act, as it was enacted during the great depression when workers suffered from long
hours working and unequal pay (Safstrom, 2019). This creates a harsh condition which can
impact the lives of many children as child work in big companies at low paid salary or wages.
Various things are included in employment laws such as family and medical leave and support,
compensation of workers, discrimination, employee benefits and social security.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arrowsmith, S., 2018. The Law of Public and Utilities Procurement Volume 1 & 2: Regulation
in the EU and the UK. Sweet and Maxwell.
Estlund, C., 2018. What should we do after work? Automation and employment law. The Yale
Law Journal, pp.254-326.
Galvin, D.J., 2019. From labor law to employment law: The changing politics of workers’
rights. Studies in American Political Development. 33(1). pp.50-86.
Mello, J. A., 2019. Why the equal pay act and laws which prohibit salary inquiries of job
applicants can not adequately address gender-based pay inequity. SAGE Open. 9(3).
p.2158244019869106.
Mirmohammad Sadeghi, H., Rahmati, A. and Niyazabadi, M., 2018. The Role of Established
Concepts of Civil Law in Explanation of Property Offences in Iran and UK Legal
System. Journal of Comparative Law. 5(1). pp.25-46.
Palombo, D., 2019. The duty of care of the parent company: A comparison between French law,
UK precedents and the Swiss proposals. Business and Human Rights Journal, 4(2),
pp.265-286.
Price, A., 2021. American Law: A Comparative Primer. By Gerrit De Geest. Cheltenham, UK;
Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. Pp. x, 126. ISBN: 978-1-83910-146-
51. International Journal of Legal Information. 49(1). pp.53-54.
Safstrom, J., 2019. Salary History and Pay Parity: Assessing Prior Salary History as a Factor
other than Sex in Equal Pay Act Litigation. Yale JL & Feminism. 31. p.135.
Sternlight, J. R., 2019. Mandatory Arbitration Stymies Progress Towards Justice in Employment
Law: Where To,# MeToo?. Harv. CR-CLL Rev., 54, p.155.