Exploring Legal Solutions for Business Disputes: A Case Study Approach

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report explores UK business law, covering legal frameworks and dispute resolution.

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Business law
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
LO1: Explanation of nature of legal System (Activity 1)..........................................................4
Different sources of law (P1).................................................................................................4
Role of government in law making and ways statutory and common law is applied in
justice courts (P2)...................................................................................................................5
Evaluating effectiveness of legal systems (M1).....................................................................6
LO2: Illustrating potential impact of law on business...............................................................7
Impact of company, employment and contract law on business (P3)....................................7
Differentiate between legislations, regulations and standards to analyse potential impacts
on business (M2)....................................................................................................................9
Provide a coherent and critical evaluation of the legal system and law, with evidence drawn
from a range of different relevant examples to support judgments (D1).............................10
LO3: Examining formation of different types of organisation................................................10
Different types of organisations based upon legal framework (P4).....................................10
Explaining ways business organisations are managed and funded (P5)..............................12
Assessment of advantages and disadvantage of different types of business organisation
(M3)......................................................................................................................................12
LO4: Recommendation of appropriate legal solutions to resolve areas of dispute..................14
Recommend legal solutions for resolving range of disputes using examples (P6)..............15
Comparing and contrast different source of legal advice and support for dispute resolution
(M4)......................................................................................................................................16
Evaluate the effectiveness of legal solutions, legal advice, and support for dispute
resolution (D3)......................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Laws and regulations play a critical role within business organisations. Presence of law
indicates that clear and understandable rules are present and everyone has to abide by them.
In absence of rules and patterns, business transactions would be chaotic and unpredictable.
Laws and regulations protect interests of every entity. Moreover, the laws and regulation
provides stability, consistency and certainty within potential volatile business environment.
Laws hold business, associated personnel and government accountable for their actions. The
current task outlines various sources of law and ways employment and contract law
influences various business bodies. Moreover, various types of business organisation and
certain recommendations to resolve several areas of dispute have been outlined within the
task.
LO1: Explanation of nature of legal System (Activity 1)
Different sources of law (P1)
There are various sources of law within the English legislature. One of the unique features
would be the British judicial system a presence of doctrine of judicial precedence. As
mentioned by Hamilton and Webster (2018), the judicial precedents forms to be a well-
documented record of reported decisions that were undertaken by the court in past. It forms to
be one of the potent sources of law for future decisions. Four major bodies form to be sources
of laws within UK. The functions of such bodies have been outlined within the following
table:
Name Function
Statues This body comprises of UK Parliaments and other parts such as
devolved organisations from the parliament. They form the highest
judicial law-making firm and comprises of various ministers. Such
bodies make laws that are on best interests of the citizens of nations.
The laws passed by legislation cannot be changed. However, they can
be consolidated as seen in the case of Insolvency Act 1986.
Delegated
Legislations
This comprises of some particular minister or a group of authorities
who have been authorised by certain regulation or Act of parliament
for forming laws. The Act that confers such authority is referred as
Enabling Act. The regulations that are undertaken by such authorities
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are often considered as delegated legislation.
Common Law This comprises of various laws that are made on basis of principles
established during proceedings of cases. It is evident form the case of
Kleinwort Benson vs. Lincoln City Council (1998) that Lord Browne-
Wilkinson had referred that common law is made by judges and
required changes are made according to changes in complexity of
cases (Elliott and Quinn, 2015).
EU Law This consists of directives that are required to be implemented in to
national laws of member states. Such regulations are automatically
applied within all the states. The English legal system did not
encapsulate treaties as potential laws. However, after the European
Communities Act in 1972, the European Union was incorporated in
legislations (Png, 2017).
Table 1: Various source of law in UK
(Source: Influenced by Elliott and Quinn, 2015, p.558)
Role of government in law making and ways statutory and common law is applied in
justice courts (P2)
Within UK, the parliament forms to be supreme authority regarding law making. There are
several process involved within this process. Initially, the legislations are crated within the
parliament in forms of bills. The bills consist of all the main domains of the law are drafted
within bill and they are brought forward by the members of parliament (MP). Bills undergo
several processes namely, first and second hearings (judiciary.uk, 2018). The committee
recommends certain changes within first and second readings and subsequently changes are
reported. After the third reading, the bill is sent to House of Lords for making necessary
amendments. It is only after receiving the Royal Assent that bill is transformed into a law.
Common law is comprised of legislations that are created upon the basis of preceding and
rulings undertaken by judges. On the contrary, statuary laws comprises of written laws that
have been passed by legislature and government bodies within UK. Such laws are widely
applicable and accepted by the society for many years. For instance signing of contracts
within prior to undertaking business transactions are common laws whereas as braking of The
Highway Code (36- 46) may be considered as statuary law (lawontheweb.co.uk, 2018).
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As far as the justice courts are concerned, the legal proceedings of common laws and statuary
law differ on various perspectives. As per the views of Dahan et al. (2015), the common law
provides power to judicial system rather than monarchy for deciding legal matters. Moreover,
the principle of Right to fair hearing under the Article 5 of European Convention on Human
Rights (1988) is applied within then judicial court to ensure all the applicants of the case gets
to lay their evidences within the proceedings (judiciary.uk, 2018).
As far as the statutory laws are concerned, their interpretations and enforcement lie within the
judicial bodies. Such laws are created through recognised legislators and often coded. Within
the judicial system, the courts strive to follow the intent of legislature that is encoded within
statutory laws. In order, to determine the legislative intent of the case being presented, prior
drafts that are presented while proceedings and even debates made are taken into
consideration. In some cases, statuary laws seem to be non-legislative and the court might
refuse to adhere to them based upon validity of the cases.
Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of ways statutory and common law is applied in
various justice courts
(Source: lawontheweb.co.uk, 2018)
Evaluating effectiveness of legal systems (M1)
The English Legislature system has undergone various changes in order to meet the common
interest of the people as well as present a fair judicial system to its citizens. One of the
notable changes was creation of Ministry of Justice in 2007 that replaced the Department of
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Constitutional Affairs (commonwealthgovernance.org, 2018). This ensured that all the
criminal related cases were conferred to a superior body and that hearings were made on the
cases without much delay. In addition to this change, offender’s management services and all
the powers for their decisions were transferred to the Ministry of Justice rather than Home
Office. As mentioned by Hörisch et al. (2017), the legal system within UK strives to
implement effective system that are based upon radical changes that are taking place across
the world rather than hearings and judgement of past cases. This ensures that a quick and
accountable legal system is existent within the nation that ensures development and
transparency to the citizens of country.
As far as the business organisations are concerned, there are several laws that prove to be
beneficial for entrepreneurs. The Data Protection Bill implemented by EU was brought into
force on May 2018 and required companies to be solicited prior to gaining access to personal
data (supremecourt.uk, 2018). Moreover, the transfer of data was made easier within service
providers. This act proves to be quite beneficial for small organisations as most of the
transactions are made over the internet. In addition, small enterprises are more prone to cyber
threats and often incur heavy losses in absence of proper legal systems. It is evident from
such reforms within UK that legal systems holds many spaces for implementing changes and
meeting the changing needs of citizens.
One of the notable features of legal system within UK is that it is adversarial. Ippoliti et al.
(2015) mentions that within this framework, the judges and jury remain neutral and may
request a clarification to ensure fairness of the trail. The evidences are presented both on the
part of defence and prosecution and the role of the judge is simple to seek out fairness in each
cases. Thus, it is evident that English legislature system forms to be a fair and just legal
system and the focus of which lies in the benefit of the citizens and not of any particular
organisation or people.
LO2: Illustrating potential impact of law on business
Impact of company, employment and contract law on business (P3)
The Company law (2006) regulates various corporate bodies within UK. It forms to be one of
the longest pieces of legislation and covers around 1300 sections (supremecourt.uk, 2018).
One of the primary aims of this act is to provide a proper code of duties for the directors of
the company and to ensure well fare of the shareholders by providing them the right to vote
regarding various business protocols. Moreover, the act also helps in simplification of
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administrative responsibilities and duties within various corporate organisation of UK. As the
Senior Employment and Dispute law advisor of Global Solicitor, it is important to outline
various criteria of Company Law such as limited companies can be regulated by one director
rather than company secretary. Moreover, the new start-up companies can fill up duties and
submissions electronically which saves time and resources largely.
It has been mentioned by Buscaglia (2016) that value of the shareholders both direct and
indirect have been benefitted by the Company Law as director are entitled to various
penalties in case of frauds and non-compliance of contracts. As far as the new start-up,
companies are concerned this law ensures that proper returns are provided to shareholders
and resources are utilised in a proper manner. Moreover, companies are not entitled to
conducting board meetings on regular basis that provides a sense of independence to the
organisation.
The Employment Act (2002) provides guidelines and regulations regarding employment
facilities that are to be provided to the workers within the organisation. The legislation
regulates the relation between workers, employers and trade unions and entitles every
employee to minimum wage of £7.83 according to National Minimum Wage Act (1998)
(commonwealthgovernance.org, 2018). In addition, this act provides regulations and benefits
of sick leaves, holidays and leaves for childcare to all the employees irrespective of their
position within organisation. In addition, the employees are also allowed to take part in
meetings and discussions pertaining to decisions within organisation and suggest
recommendations. Clark and Brown (2015) mentions for business organisations this act has
dual effect, as it increases motivation of employees by ensuring fair payment. On the other
hand, companies have to pay heavy penalties in case they fail to make appropriate payment to
their employees. Moreover, business organisations may also face certain losses owing to
provision of holidays to employees.
As mentioned by Atkinson (2018), a contract forms a legal documentation of all the terms
and conditions that are agreed by both the parties while undertaking a decision or
transactions. As far as business organisations are concerned, contracts are made between
employees, suppliers, shareholders and other alliance organisations. Contracts help the
companies against various fraud schemes and provide legal influences regarding provisions
of services and products. On the contrary, if any of the terms within contract are breached by
the company, then heavy penalties are faced.
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Figure 2: Impact of various laws within various business organisations
(Source: Influenced by Clark and Brown, 2015, p.256)
Differentiate between legislations, regulations and standards to analyse potential
impacts on business (M2)
Legislations form to be set of rules that are to be followed by business organisations. As
mentioned by Fitzmaurice (2017), certain regulations that are encoded within the legislations
provide a legal framework for business organisation for creating a proper task force and
improving their business functionality. It is important for Global Solicitors to outline all the
regulations to new enterprises in order to prevent legal penalties and ensure that their
employees are paid according to their expertise. The part 10 to 39 regulation within The
Company law (2006) entitles various powers to the companies based upon their sizes and
capital invested (Besley, 2015).
The Employment Act (2002) entitles the employees of their basic rights and ensures that
payments are made according to work done by them. It is evident form the case of Swansea
University pension and assurance scheme vs. Williams in 2010, that the business
organisation was penalised for discriminating amongst the employees (Honeyball, 2016).
Under this act, the business organisation has to work in ethical manner to ensure that
discrimination is not made towards employees and equal pay is ensured irrespective of their
personal preferences.
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As far as the Contract law is concerned, the Unfair Contracts Terms Act (1977) imposes
limits regarding extent of breach of contracts and entitled penalties (Png, 2017). From the
perspectives of business organisations, the regulations also provide certain exclusion clauses
that can be utilised for minimising the costs of penalties. The above-mentioned laws provide
a definite legal framework for new start-ups in order to maximise their profits and adhere to
various regulations. In addition, such regulations help the business organisations to create a
proper workforce and provide all the rights they are entitled to during their service.
Provide a coherent and critical evaluation of the legal system and law, with evidence
drawn from a range of different relevant examples to support judgments (D1).
The legal system of the UK is evaluated critically which is evaluated on the basis of its
functions. It plays an imperative role to provide justice to the disputed parties and ensure that
each and every individual treated equally and get equal right to get justice. The justice
providing system of the UK take a long period of time in providing justice but on the other
hand, it also assists that the citizens get equal treatment before the law. It is the responsibility
of the public official and judges that no person is deprived of from justice. The process of
resolving disputes are time-consuming and the people who belong to the middle class are not
able to make payment of the fees of the court. This system abides with government laws and
regulations while resolving the cases (Keay and Loughrey, 2015). The UK legal system is
authorized to regulate the matter of judicial nature and works on the principle of Stare
decisis. According to this principle, the lower obliged to follow and abide by the decisions of
the lower courts. Lower courts are obliged to resolve the cases of similar nature and facts and
the judicial system of the UK work on this foundation. According to the case of Robinson v
White, where it is stated by the court that the lower courts are bound with the higher court
decisions to resolve the cases, involves similar facts.
LO3: Examining the formation of different types of organisation
Different types of organisations based upon legal framework (P4)
As far as the Global Solicitor is concerned, the basis for differentiating various business
organisations depends upon liabilities of the organisations and amount of capital possessed by
the company. The laws and regulations of UK also determine the formation of various
business organisations and accordingly they are entitled to certain specific regulations. It has
been mentioned by Feeley (2017), that new start-ups are critically influenced by legal
structures as tax laws, business regulations are in state of constant flux, and even small
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reforms might affect the functioning of various business transactions. The various forms of
business organisation based upon legal framework are mentioned as following:
Sole proprietorship: Such organisations are owned by a single person and all the rules and
regulations of the organisations are decided by the director. However, the national laws are
applicable to such organisations also. The business owner holds the personal liabilities of all
the financial obligation and debts (Craig, 2017). Sole proprietorships do not have taxes
deducted within their income however; they have to make quarterly estimated payments of
taxes.
Partnership: Such organisations are created when two or more person associate for initiating
a trade or business. Every entity within partnership organisation contributes to money,
property and labour of the organisation. Within such organisations, partners are not
considered as employees and subsequently taxes are not withheld from any form of business
transactions. The taxes are paid to the government in form of quarterly tax payments from the
expected profits. As mentioned by Hamilton and Webster (2018), within partnership
organisations, every partner is supposed to share their income even in absence of distribution.
All the legal changes and compliances within such organisation are jointly made by the
partners and major financial decisions are made by them.
Limited Liabilities Companies (LLC): Such forms of organisation are new within state
statues and follows novel forms of business structures. Owners within LLC are often referred
as members owing to the fact that they might include individuals, several corporation,
alliances and even foreign entities. Such organisations enjoy the benefits of management
flexibility as owners are entitled to limited amount of debts and actions (Adams, 2016). Most
of the legal frameworks within such organisations are controlled by the state and authorities.
Subsequently in case of any dysfunction, the personal liabilities of owners are not hampered.
LLC enjoy the benefits of pass though taxations as income of the entity are considered as
income of the associated members.
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Figure 3: Various types of business organisation
(Source: Influenced by Adams, 2016, p.559)
Explaining ways business organisations are managed and funded (P5)
The different types of organisations are managed and funded through various mediums.
Business organisations are mainly managed by a panel of leaders and directors. These panels
are appointed for taking necessary organisational decisions and facilitate effective
management of the organisation. As observed in majority of firms’ cases, handled by Global
Solicitors, there are limited areas and sources of funds for the organisations. These mediums
mainly encompasses funding sources like contracts of government, grants, investments ,
loans and the capital acquired by performing own business or organisational activities. Some
of the organisations are funded by either local or central government. These funding are
offered by the government in form of a grant for the participation of organisation in welfare
of locality. For organisations with sole proprietorship, finance is acquired through loans that
are provided by various organisations and banks. In this way, funding is done for business
organisations.
Assessment of advantages and disadvantage of different types of business organisation
(M3)
As mentioned by Markovic (2011), the types of business organisations discussed above have
many advantages and disadvantages as well. Before establishing the types of business
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