Business Law & Ethics: Analyzing Contractual Agreements in Detail

This case study delves into the critical intersection of business law and ethics, particularly focusing on contract law. It defines contract law, outlines the essential elements of a valid contract (offer, acceptance, consideration, and intention to create legal relations), and explains the English court system's role in resolving disputes. The study analyzes hypothetical scenarios involving Hilary and several other individuals to determine the existence of binding contracts, considering concepts like counter-offers and the postal rule. Furthermore, it discusses various legal remedies available in cases of breach of contract, such as specific performance and compensation, emphasizing the importance of adhering to contractual obligations. The document, contributed by a student and available on Desklib, serves as a valuable resource for understanding contract law principles and their practical application in business contexts.

Business Law and Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................................3
Define contract law and describe all the blue prints of a contract..........................................................3
Explain the court system in relation to the English legal system and advise the parties above which
court(s) action to pursue.........................................................................................................................4
Advise Hilary as to whether binding contracts exist between herself and each of the following people :
Eleanor, Amy and Olivia...........................................................................................................................4
Explain and discuss the various remedies available to the parties..........................................................5
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business law and ethics is important section for any of the organisation in continuing
their business activity. It is mandatory that guidelines of business law should be considered at the
time of taking any sort of decision. Organisation failing to meet out the criteria always has to
suffer because they do not find out the actual way that how they can accomplish their goals. In
respect to given criteria of the file, there are number of topics that needs to be focused and they
are they are related with contract law, court produce along with solving the case study and what
are the remedies which are available in any of the case.
MAIN BODY
Define contract law and describe all the blue prints of a contract.
A contract is being described as "an obligation that has been enforceable by law from all
parties to a contract." Law of contract really is an important principle that individuals are using
in their everyday routines. The agreement is not always in formal writing however, an agreement
could also be in verbal form. In order to form a contract, it is necessary to have at least multiple
contracting parties creating a service agreement. There is a requirement of forming contract is
just to ensure about the duty and obligation which must be done by any of the party while
performing their part of work. It is a legal obligation that once contract is formed none of the
contracted party can revoke form performing the work.
While discussing about the blue print of the contract, it is necessary that each of the terms and
condition must be fulfilled. Any of the contract can be formed where there is offer and
acceptance. Talking about offer, it is the step where one of the persons shows their willing to
perform, they’re with another person. In this situation, it depends about offeree that whether they
are interest to it or not and if not, contract will not be formed. On the other side, invitation to
offer is never considered as offer as only advertisement is done in this respective process. The
case related to offer which has been discussed previously is Harvey v Facey 1893 (Sison, 2018).
There are other essential terms and condition which should be considered as consideration is also
important within the contract as it tells that contracted party will exchange something in return
while performing their part of contract (Ciocchetti, 2016). In addition to this, intention to create
legal relation is also essential so that part performance can be done in a successful manner. It

means that whenever contract is formed between family members, contract cannot be performed
as per the required manner. This are some of the blue prints of contract law that any of the
contractual party must focus.
Explain the court system in relation to the English legal system and advise the parties above
which court(s) action to pursue.
It is necessary for any of the country to focus towards their legal system and judiciary
process because they are among the important body which forces that everyone follows the laws
and regulation as per the requirement. In context of English Legal system, they majorly give
importance to their judiciary system so that any of the person do not breaches any of the terms
and condition of the law (Moretti, 2019). As per the requirement of question, disputed party of
case wants to know that which court procedure can be helpful for them in obtaining the suitable
result. Below, detail court procedure has been discussed so that suitable advice can be given to
disputed parties.
The English legal system is based on two types of court procedure and they are civil and
criminal and both of them has a huge role in current scenario for resolving any sort of cases. In civil court
those cases can be entered which are not complex in nature and related to small matters and at the same
time, criminal court deals with complex cases where imprisonment is possible for defaulter.
Civil Cases: Any of the civil case can be solved with the help of following court: county court,
magistrate court, high court, court of appeal & supreme court. All of this court has special
importance because they work for delivering the justice to every individual.
Criminal Cases: This are the cases where huge time can be taken for declaring any of the result. The
burden to resolve ant of the criminal case has been handed to magistrate court, crown court, court of
appeal and House of Lords (Gross-Schaefer and Kalbers, 2018).
The case study requires the civil proceeding where parties can easily sort of their matter by taking
the help of county court. It is because this level of court is specialist in resolving any of the case which is
related to agreement or contract.
Advise Hilary as to whether binding contracts exist between herself and each of the following
people: Eleanor, Amy and Olivia.
Case 1: There is no binding agreement between Hilary and Eleanor because at first
instance where offer was made to Eleanor, she made a counter offer and changed the scenario of

the case. Again, when offer was made by Hilary then Eleanor rejected for entering into a contract
with her which ensures that there is no valid contract.
Case 2: The second scenario between Hilary and Amy is quite complex because it shows
that both of the party were willing to entering into the contract. It is because offer was made by
Hilary were Amy had sent post of acceptance to Hilary but before reaching the post, Amy made
a fax to Hilary where it was written to not consider the letter which has been drafted as she is not
interest in the offer (Muller and Fink-Samnick, 2017). It simply states that contract has been not
made between the party.
Case 3: The situation between Hilary and Olivia forms the contract because offer was
made by Hilary through advertisement in which it was clearly mentioned that Hilary will going
to organise a huge sale where first customer will be given the product at very low-cost price.
Looking at the offer, Olivia reached the shop to claim the reward at first and at the very same
time Hilary rejected to sale the product (Sheikh, 2017). It simply raised the situation of breach of
contract. The breach of contract occurs where there is a breach of contract. It means there was a
contract between Hilary and Olivia.
Explain and discuss the various remedies available to the parties
It is essential for any of the person or entity to understand that they are not allowed to
revoke the contracted condition as it will raise the situation of breach of contract. In simple
words, if contracted party enters into the contract, they do not have the option to breach the terms
and condition because innocent party gets the opportunity to sue defaulter. Some of the remedy
which are available for the breach of contact are:
Specific Performance: It is the primary situation where court might declare the result in
which defaulter may have to complete their part of work. This decision is generally taken in the
circumstances where it is not possible to make compensate to the innocent party (Poff, 2020).
Once order is declared by the court, it becomes the responsibility complete the work.
Compensation: There are certain circumstances where court can declare their decision in
contracted related case where compensation should be done. In most of the cases, compensation
is done through the way of monetary terms. But, for seeking monetary benefits, it is essential for

innocent party to justify the points in court that default in contract has been done from the side of
another party.
CONCLUSION
From the lights of above discussion, it is understandable that business law and ethics has
a special role within the business. It is essential that while forming any of the contract, elements
of contract should be focused so that valid contract can be formed. The procedure of court is
lengthy but at the end of the day, they are able to deliver suitable result with the help of law and
regulation formed by legislative body. For any of the breach of contract there is a requirement to
engage in a valid contract.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ciocchetti, C., 2016. Employment Law & Ethics: 7 Things You Need to Know About: Hiring:
Job Search--Promotion (Presentation Slides). Available at SSRN 2714393.
Gross-Schaefer, A. and Kalbers, L. P., 2018. Legal Ethics Education: From Academic
Foundation through Professional Practice. Prof. Law., 25, p.18.
Moretti, A., 2019. Navigating the grey areas of law and ethics in ethnography. Journal of
Organizational Ethnography.
Muller, L. S. and Fink-Samnick, E., 2017. Law and ethics: A marriage of necessity. Professional
Case Management, 22(3), pp.138-141.
Poff, D. C., 2020. Business Ethics Research and Research Ethics in Business
Research. Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity, pp.999-1011.
Sheikh, S., 2017. Sharia: Law & Ethics of Organ Donations in Islam. J. Int'l L. Islamic L., 13,
p.30.
Sison, A. J. G., 2018. Virtue ethics and natural law responses to human rights quandaries in
business. Business and Human Rights Journal, 3(2), pp.211-232.