Business Law and Ethics Project: Contract Analysis and Remedies

This report delves into the intricacies of business law and ethics, examining key concepts such as contract law, remedies, and corporate governance. The first part of the report analyzes a case study involving Hilary, Amy, Eleanor, and Olivia, exploring the formation of contracts, the elements required for a binding agreement, and the available remedies for each party. The second part of the report shifts focus to broader ethical considerations, using the Enron scandal as a case study to illustrate the impact of accounting fraud and unethical practices on corporate governance. The report highlights the importance of transparency, ethical conduct, and adherence to legal frameworks in ensuring the success and sustainability of businesses. The analysis covers various aspects of the English legal system, the role of courts, and the implications of legal and ethical violations, providing a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

Business Law and
Ethics

TABLE OF CONTENT
Project-1 Individual essay (1500 words).........................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. Definition of contract law and its blue print............................................................................3
2. Court system in relation to English legal system and type of court each part needs to pursue
.....................................................................................................................................................4
3 Analysis whether binding contract is between following people: Amy, Olivia, Hilary and
Eleanor.........................................................................................................................................5
4. Various remedies available to each parties..............................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
PROJECT 2.....................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................7
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................7
CONLUSION................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Project-1 Individual essay (1500 words)
INTRODUCTION
There are various laws that have been made by government to protect interest of people
and customers which need to be followed by various organisations that are operating its function
in society. Business that considered various laws while operating its function can easily grow
and expand its operation and gain competitive advantages. This is essay based on case study of
Contractual relationship between three individual such as Hilary, Amy, Eleanor and Olivia.
1. Definition of contract law and its blue print
Contract law is type of written agreement between two or more parties to act in specific
manner or perform specific task and responsibilities. Or in other term it refers to accepted
proposal that is legally bided so that in case of arises of conflict it can be easily resolved between
them (Davies, 2018). Contract is simple document that includes legal right, responsibilities and
obligation, terms and conditions need to be agreed by two or more associated parties. The blue
prints or elements of contract can be understood as:
Offers: It can be stated that in order to have legal contract one party should offer something for
sales so that interest parties can stated their preferences. Therefore it means individual give
proposal to other party such as Hilary have give proposal for selling its printing press for
£15,000 to Eleanor, office computer for £1000 and valuable painting by Trumpeter £1.
Acceptance: The offer made by person needed to be accepted by other individual in order to
make valid legal contract between them (Roux, 2017). For example: Eleanor has not accepted the
agreement to pay £15,000 instead it say that it would like to pay £13,000. On the other hand
Amy was ready to pay £1000 but at the end she has rejected.
Consideration: In order to have legal contract there should some amount of consideration such
as object, services or payment which means both involved parties in agreement needs to pay
something to each other. Like in three above mention case there is no exchange of products or
consideration among interested parties so there is no contractual agreement between them.
Legality of subject matter: Contract agreements are mainly formed with legal purpose at the
same time has considered statutory regulation so that contract can be become valid. Therefore,
there was no legal binding between Hilary and other parties regarding to purchase and payment
of goods.

Contractual capacity: This element stated that individual must have contractual capacity to
enter into contract such as Hilary and other parties. Amy and Eleanor should have capacity to
pay specific amount as proposed by Hilary.
Contractual intent: For valid contract both parties need to be intended or interested in
purchasing products or services offered by other individuals (Pozzo, 2020). Such as in Hilary has
intention to sold products but Amy and Eleanor are not interested to have products.
2. Court system in relation to English legal system and type of court each part needs to pursue
English legal system is ideal for coming legal study that has helped in better resolution of
conflict that arise between parties. It can be illustrated that there are three separate legal system
in United Kingdome such as Scotland, England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Legal structure
of UK has classified into two House of Lords and House of commons. In order to be member of
house of common the person need to be elected at the same time there are certain people that are
disqualified from membership on basis of status and occupation. It have 650 member of
parliaments and each electors have single vote therefore individual that have highest number of
votes is termed to be MP. On the other hand it can be illustrated that house of lord is neither
representative body and elected (Hellwege, 2018). Therefore people are appointed on basis of
advice of prime minister by monarch and it have 800 peers. Common law system is mainly
followed in England and Wales that is responsible for passing legislation and creation of
precedents by use of case law. These laws are finally implemented in country by passing in
parliament that includes Monarch that is House of Lords and house of common. Whereas
judiciary is most responsible for controlling case laws and court systems therefore it is
completely separate from parliament of UK. Monarch that is not president is head of state and its
duties or function are conscribed by convention.
Common law: Senior or Supreme Court is mainly responsible for common law and legal system
of England and Wales.
Civil law: In case any individual feel that it have be cheated or something civil wrong have be
conducted than it is free to approach appropriate court in order to get justices. It can be stated
that there are more than 200 Country court across different places that deals with claim less than
£25,000 and £50,000 that have caused harm and injury to other individual. Whereas high valued
cases are handle in high court by single judge for better decision and justice to people (Enright,

2018). The person claim for civil case is know as claimant on the other hand other party is called
as defendant. Therefore, in case claimant successful in winning case then defendant have to pay
specific amount of money to claimant for amount of loss it have beard.
From the above analysis and discussion it can be stated that various parties such as
Olivia, Amy, Eleanor and Hilary can approached country court in order to resolve their conflict
related to contractual agreement (Enright, 2018). In case they are not satisfied or happy with
decision of civil courts than they have option to go to court of appeal (Civil division) and if they
are not satisfied with decision of Court of appeal than also they have chance to approach
supreme court that is final decision maker and resolution of dispute.
Thus it can be justified that these three above scenario belong to civil law of contract act so
they can get resolved their respective problem by approaching particular court.
3 Analysis whether binding contract is between following people: Amy, Olivia, Hilary and
Eleanor
The above case study illustrated that Hilary have advertise for selling its printing press
for amount of £15,000 so Eleanor argued that it wants it in £10000 but Hilary has not agreed and
said it would sell last at £13000. So, there was no legal agreement between Hilary and Eleanor
that it would make purchased of printing press at rate of £13000 or £10000. Therefore it can be
illustrated that there is no binding contract between Hilary and Eleanor to have purchased or
make payment for printing press (Stone, 2016).
In another case of Amy, Hilary wants to sells its office computer for only £1000 and
Amy agreed to pay or purchased it for specific amount. So, binding contract was made between
Hilary and Amy that they will purchase and sell computer office at specific rates. But before
delivered she fax and said that ignore the arrived message which lead to cancelation of
agreement made between two parties.
On the other hand in last case there was no contractual binding or relationship between
Hilary and Olivia as she has offered that it will sells valuable painting made by Trumpter at just
£1 to first customers at starting of sales (Kar, 2016). But as soon Olivia enter it have been sold so
as there was no contractual agreement between Olivia and Hilary it can easily sells painting to
other individuals that have come first at its stall for purchased.
The three situation is somewhat similar to Carlill vs carbolic smoke ball company
case that have advertisement in newspaper that “£100 reward to person in case any

individual is caused by diseases of cold after having 3 ball time daily. MRs carlill accepted
and find that despite consistence three times a day flu caught so it claimed for reward.
Therefore judgement was in favour of mrs carlill as it have followed or abided to all legal
steps for valid contract (Contract Law Cases, 2019).
Felthouse v Bindley is another case that is similar to above cases such as there was general
talk between two parties and Bindley wad ready to buy horse but due to no response it said
that in case Felthouse does not replied the horse will be of bindley that lead to conflict
between parties (Felthouse v Bindley [1862]).
4. Various remedies available to each parties
There are various remedies available that can be used by each parties to resolved their
existing conflict can be illustrated as follows:
Recession of court: It stated that in case one individual is not able to fulfil its obligation that
other can also have chance to refuse its performance. Such as in three above mention case the
client that is Amy, Eleanor have not fulfil their obligation to pay specific amount to Hilary so it
can also not sells product to them (Roux, 2017). Same for Olivia if Hilary has sell painting to
some other person that it does not have to pay £1 also.
Sue for damage: As such there is no such remedies as there is no break of contract between
Hilary, Olivia and Eleanor but it have contract with Amy so may have to pay some amount.
Amy has to pay specific amount to Hilary if it had to incurred any kind of expense to make
deliver to product to final customers. By making payment for damage caused or expense made
the conflict between two parties can be easily resolved.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it can be concluded that for valid contractual relationship there
should be agreement between parties to purchase and make payment of products at specific rates.
It can also be stated from above analysis that all such remedies can be used to avoid
complication and conflict between several parties. Therefore various laws made by government
helps to protect interest of business man and consumers that are involved in purchased and sells
of products and services.

PROJECT 2
INTRODUCTION
The business law and ethics can be understood as widely important aspect where
companies should focus for pertaining strong functional governance and high code of
transparency factors for gaining on higher working synergy and new goodwill metrics onto
producing new course of ethics. Report explains various horizons impacting business law, ethics
within corporate governance and new functional avenues highly important for gaining stronger
working actions, goals of actions and commitment among employees.
MAIN BODY
The Enron Corporation scandal is one of the most known corporate scandal where
report financial condition was sustained by planned accounting fraud, where ethical corporate
governance has been violated within business displaying wrong business ethics and display of
wrong accounts. The case analyses that Enron engaged in mark to market accounting, for which
company received official US securities and exchange commission approval in 1992 , which
enables companies to value their financial accounting situation based on fair value of company
assets, which is also displaying various changes in market parameters and how business is
progressing. Enron used this method of accounting to overinflate company estimated profits,
mislead investors within industry and also hide various debts which us one of the factor within
wilful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal has reportedly brought into question various
accounting practices which have been violated and also importance of corporate governance
within businesses. Ethical corporate governance holds wide functional ethical importance as it
refers to processes and policies that company has in place to deal with various issues concerning
how administration and conducting of business within day to day ethics ( Kelly, Hammer and
Hendy, 2020).
It is important for company shall exist within industry by working with strong functional
ethics by working to provide products and services when working with goal of generating
profit within wider goals of functional advancement. Fundamental objective of corporate
governance is to enhance shareholders value and protect interests of stakeholders by improving
performance levels, performance metrics along with accountability. Enron scandal drew attention
to accounting and corporate fraud as its shareholders lost around 74$ billion on past 4 years
leading up to its bankruptcy, and its employees also lost billions in pension benefits. The Enron

company faced an ethical accounting scandal in year 2001 after using wrong business accounting
practices to fake their profits and misused special purpose entities which they worked to make
their losses look like less than they were actually and wrongly cooked the books to make their
income look much higher for shareholders to attract them. The scandal also is well known
example of wilful corporate fraud and corruption where it brought into question the accounting
practices, activities followed within administration of many corporations in US and was a factor
in enactment of Sarbanes- Oxley act of 2002. It also affected greater business ethics by causing
dissolution of the firm along with accounting auditor company Arthur Andersen which also
violated the business corporate governance ethics. It can be further analysed that Enron violated
public disclosure rules in dealing with banks, bankruptcy examiners report highlights numerous
avenues for criminal investigators seeking for bringing case that company is presenting within
books of partnerships involved in potential frauds (Jones, 2019)
The balance if pursuing market business opportunities while maintaining accountability
and ethical integrity has proved defining challenge for further competitive expansion within new
avenues by companies it has been continuously a subject to their morale development. It has
increased urgency of search for better ethical framework and governance for business ethics
development where transparencies within information are appropriately important. The lower
level employees were encouraged to further invest in company stock for their retirement savings
just before the company collapsed, workers later filled class action lawsuit and won an $85
million settlement which has widely reduced efficiency levels within services. The governance
ethics can be understood within 4 parameters which are as follows: people, purpose, process and
performance goals onto which new synergy can be built on for enhancing higher goodwill.
People, purpose, process and performance are the 4 paradigms which enables to develop new
goals avenues of ethical presentation of company business services. The corporate governance
tools such as encouragement of deeper stockholder engagement where presentation of all
functional paradigms enable to yield onto higher synergy of ethics functionality by allowing
true conclusion of all information within corporate structure. The strategies for ethical
governance hold wide importance for allowing disposal of cross shareholdings by corporations,
where business within top companies need to be professionally strong for transparent
presentation of activities which formally built up the investment fundamentals (Bowden, 2019)

The Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 is known as Public company accounting reform and
investor protection act and corporate auditing accountability, responsibility and transparency act
with wide parameters of accountability. The public company boards, management and public
accounting firms where it also applies to private companies such as wilful functional ethics to
impede federal investigation. The primary goal of this act was to fix auditing of U.S public
companies consistency within its performance avenues , also regulating accounting firms that
audit companies must comply with all legal formalities to abide company functional competitive
performance metrics. Sarbanes Oxley act is one of the most innovative tool used to evaluate
compliance with the act reinforcement of information technology and security controls,
upholding various financial problems for stronger performance metrics with reinforced avenues.
The SOX act control is a rule that prevents and detects errors within process cycle of financial
reporting which also require all public companies doing business in United States to comply with
all regulations for financial reporting and for technical progression within business industry.
Section 404 in this requires corporate executives to certify accuracy of financial statements
personally and if there are any violations found by companies the CEO’s could face various
charges. The adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting enables
companies auditors have to provide transparency within services, controls and disclosures
(Parker Jr, 2019)
The SOX act profoundly focuses on major corporate governance ethics which are
participatory, consensus, oriented, accountable, responsive, effective and also widely efficiently
focused for equitable decisions and inclusive functional performance measures. SOX created
new auditor watchdog, within the public companies where it focuses on inspection, investigation
and enforces compliance of these fundamentals. It prohibits accounting firms from doing
business consulting with the companies they are auditing within business avenues where there
are various metrics analysed. The SOX act protects employees that report fraud and testify the
court against employers where companies are not allowed widely to change the terms and
conditions for stakeholders. The company employees can report any corporate relation of safety
and heath administration and any violation of corporate governance, business ethics where their
roles are hurt. The Enron fraud scandal has widely violated this act where financial conditions
was sustained by a fair, systematic and creatively planned accounting fraud to mislead investors
and businesses within industry and also for completion of working segments. Financial

conditions play an impediment role of high integrity while reporting corporate governance
ethics and profoundly working towards it, which can be understood as one of the most important
aspect. This can be understood by the way various fundamental determinants onto which SOX
act focuses where Enron Fraud was unable to bring on effective completion of various ethics
which businesses must follow, and be transparent for various functional duties to yield onto
wider goals and actions (Bhagat and Bolton, 2019)
Corporate governance in business plays wide importance in governing stronger
employee commitment, display of motivation and new innovation goals synergy within
businesses which technically bring on keen factorisation of goodwill within competitive industry.
The Enron company misleading information of financial reports for attracting investors and
shareholders have strong negative impact within effective completion of corporate governance
ethics and to factor on productive growth among consumers goodwill services. There is also
analysis of various factors such as progression onto wider yielding synergy of transparent
functional standards, functional ethics completion and new relative goals completion onto which
there is violation of act within business law. The company has also been unable to focus onto
productive technical standards, building true financial reports and ethically working onto larger
business ethics communication where higher focus shall be governed. It is also analysed that
Sarbanes Oxley act play widely important role in functioning within information building
metrics onto corporate governance metrics and for gaining new working arenas to enhance
goodwill standards and employees services by governing them with wide focus onto arenas and
laws to abide (Lagasio and Cucari, 2019)
CONLUSION
The report can be concluded with detailed explanation about Business law parameters
within corporate culture where there are various technical effective goals analysed which further
work as new reformed avenues onto companies should focus for bringing on wider functional
standards. The case of Enron Company has been potentially focusing onto how various laws,
sanctioned parameters of transparent business communication among employees within
company and within stakeholders, shareholders who are looking for investing further.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhagat, S. and Bolton, B., 2019. Corporate governance and firm performance: The
sequel. Journal of Corporate Finance, 58, pp.142-168.
Bowden, M.M., 2019. The Professor Anthony J. Santoro Business Law Lecture Series Presents
Becoming A Valued Business Lawyer.
Davies, P. S., 2018. JC Smith's the Law of Contract. Oxford University Press.
Enright, M., 2018. Contract Law. Great Debates in Gender and Law, p.1.
Hellwege, P., 2018. Understanding usage in international contract law harmonization. The
American Journal of Comparative Law, 66(1). pp.127-174.
Jones, L., 2019. Introduction to business law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Kar, R., 2016. Contract as empowerment. U. Chi. L. Rev., 83. p.759.
Kelly, D., Hammer, R., and Hendy, J., 2020. Business law. Routledge. Jones, L.,
2019. Introduction to business law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Lagasio, V. and Cucari, N., 2019. Corporate governance and environmental social governance
disclosure: A meta‐analytical review. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management, 26(4), pp.701-711.
Parker Jr, L.V., 2019. Corporate and Business Law. U. Rich. L. Rev., 54, p.73.
Pozzo, B., 2020. Looking for a Consistent Terminology in European Contract Law. Lingue
Culture Mediazioni-Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal), 7(1). pp.103-126.
Roux, S., 2017. Smart contracts: contract law. Without Prejudice, 17(2). pp.28-29.
Stone, R., 2016. Economic analysis of contract law from the internal point of view. Colum. L.
Rev., 116. p.2005.
Online
Contract Law Cases, 2019, [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.legalenglish.co.uk/contract-law-cases/4594591112>.
Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35, 2019, [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.lawteacher.net/cases/felthouse-v-bindley.php>.