Commercial Law Report: Analysis of Australian Commercial Law Framework

This report provides an overview of Australian commercial law, beginning with an introduction to the field and its relevance to business. The main body of the report is structured around four key areas. Folio 1 focuses on the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT) and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), detailing their functions and advantages. Folio 2 presents a letter addressing a consumer law contravention by a company, highlighting issues of faulty products and misleading practices. Folio 3 is a template. Folio 4 offers a reflection on the Australian legal system, including common law principles, negligence cases, and contract law, illustrated with examples of a company facing fines and a partnership dispute. The report concludes with a list of references, including books and journals related to commercial law and intellectual property.

Commercial Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Folio 1.....................................................................................................................................3
Folio 2.....................................................................................................................................4
Folio 3.....................................................................................................................................5
Folio 4.....................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Commercial law is that area of legal system which deals with transactions of sale and
distribution of goods (Antons and Hilty, 2015) . It has huge scope which is applicable on the
business from the time it starts till the time of dissolution. This report is about Australasian
commercial law in which working of courts including tribunals and state bodies, consumer law
partnership agreement and reflection have been provided.
MAIN BODY
Folio 1
Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT)
a. Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT) has been established in the year
1998 and is considered as Tribunal which has the responsibilities to entertain cases related to
civil and administrative. It has its individual act which governs and it has a record of resolving
more than 85000 cases every year (Casanovas and et. al., 2016).
b. VCAT has five divisions viz. Administrative, civil, human right, residential tenancies and
planning and environment. These are managed by deputy president. It deals with number of
cases in different fields such as goods and services in which issues regarding purchase or supply
of goods or services are dealt. The other example being planning and environment for obtaining
licence and to conclude related disputes.
c. Specialised tribunals are established to deal with specific cases and other cases are not
considered by them. Some of the advantages of these tribunals are as follows:
 It helps in reducing the burden from the courts that deal with all types of cases. This
increases the efficiency of the tribunals for resolving other matters by providing right and
appropriate decisions (Garnett and et. al., 2015).
 Such tribunals settles the cases in expeditious manner resulting in less time consumption.
It reduces the delays in other legal cases. The involvement of parties is huge in specialised tribunals which lead them to have
alternative solution to the disputes.
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)
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Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is an independent authority which has the
following roles:
 To analyse administrative decisions on the merits.
 To make orders to find new facts, law and policy about the decision which is under
review.
 It also provides guidance in those cases which is under review due to the reason of
incorrect or not an appropriate decision (Millar, 2015).
Functions of AAT
1. It has to review the decisions related to child support, family assistance and social
security, migration and many more.
2. The measures taken by such legal body are to make laws transparent and properly distinct
to create impact over individuals to follow them properly.
3. These have always and do offer the best decision according to situation in case, this is
very challenging decision which can effect and increase chance of accountability in case
(Mowbray Chung and Greenleaf, 2016).
Folio 2
To,
The Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company Australia,
Subject: Contravention of consumer law
Sir,
I am writing this letter as I have made multiple complaints about the problems occurring in
my car and are getting worse with the time. By considering the same, I been to Ford Essendron
(dealer of my car) to claim repair of the same. However, all my attempts went in vain as they
rejected my claim. Also, they alleged that the condition is because of the my negligence
because I couldn't drive it properly. After losing all the hopes from Ford Essendron, I am
writing this to you to highlight the contravention of s18 of Australian Consumer Law. Under
this law, it is provided that individual and organizations are bound to provide the best quality
product for which they are charging money. Furthermore, no customer should be sold any faulty
products knowingly as it would amount to breach of consumer law as well as contract.
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However, it has to be at the time of making the purchase. In addition to this, there are remedies
which giving the appropriate solutions to the problems. These are to help curbing such
misconduct and unfair trade. In nutshell, this section is for the protection of consumer from any
such incidents. By using this, a buyer can be assured about the product so bought.
This section is impactful which comprises certain terms and conditions describing the situations
that can be defined as misleading. These should be known to every individual involved in trade
as well as the customers. Below-mentioned are the instances where the provisions of this law
can be applied. The same are as follows:
1. Modified or used cars are being sold to customers which are actually faulty
2. Misleading information or advertisement for deceiving the buyers.
The several attempts made by for complaints regarding the faults in my cars have been rejected
and I was told that it was completely my negligence which led the car to this condition. I
strongly believe that providing the loss for the same is appropriate solution. I wish to have an
expected answer about resolving my problem as soon as possible. However, I like to notify you
that I will file the complaint about the same in headquarters of Ford which is located in
Dearborn, Michigan, US, if I do not get satisfactory response. Furthermore, I have another way
for this and that is by filing for the same in consumer court. I am eagerly waiting for a solution
with appropriate outcomes.
Thank you.
Folio 3
Covered in template
Folio 4
 I got to know about Australian legal system in a deep way by studying all its details.
According to me, it is based on UK legal system and there is individual constitution for
each state in the country. There are various laws which are included in civil, common,
statutory, criminal and many more. For instance, common law is there in Australia which
governs the legal cases. As per this law, the importance should be given to decisions
passed by higher courts. These are used to interpret the laws where there is ambiguity in
the laws enacted by parliaments or cases having no legal provisions for it. Just like in
UK, a case is resolved with the application of common law. The knowledge about this is
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important as business involves increased number of disputes and to avoid such problems,
previous decisions can be read. In this way, legal consequences can be avoided which can
cost huge financial resources leading to failure of business.
 While learning about Australian legal system, a case of negligence has been seen which
occurs in majority and on repetitive mode. There is a company called ABC Ltd. Which is
a well established organization in Australia. It was doing good in its business and paid
absolute attention to applicable laws. The reason for this is to be lawful and to maintain
strong position in the market and among other competitors. Although, it is a non-
monetary matter but has direct impact on the finance of the company. ABC interpreted
the new laws and amendments without taking into account the judgements passed in
previous years under common law. It was clearly due to negligence and not giving
enough attention to the actual meaning. It was more focused into other areas of business
such as meeting with investors, making investment, appointing new talents and many
more activities. The outcome for the same was that hefty fine was imposed which led to
loss of income of the business. The impact for not following the loss can result in
dissolution and the image is also destroyed. On the other hand, individuals working in the
organization get affected in many ways such as loss of employment due to closure of
business, imprisonment in extreme cases and personal liability.
 Contract is an agreement made between two people with a view to enforce it in the law
and to create legal relations. According to me, a business should be executed to provide
obligations and rights of each of the parties involved. For example, a partnership firm
named Speedy Car Wash was formed between 4 partners. It was a car wash business
which was running smoothly at the beginning. It formed a contract with Roman Pvt. Lt.d,
a supplier of car polish and accessories. According to the terms, the conditions for
payment was fixed that, 50% of the payment was to be provided at the time of contract
and rest 50% within two days of delivery. Speedy Car Wash made half of the payment at
the time of executing the contract. When the ordered goods arrived, the partners found
that there were missing items. Also, some of the car accessories has scratches which
means they had been used earlier. The partners denied to make the 50% of the payment.
The partners asked Roman Pvt. To return the money taken in advance. This caused
problem between the two parties. It can be seen that Roman Pvt. Ltd. Breached the clause
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of the contract as in this case, partners have the right to file a case against Roman for
breaching the contract. They can also seek specific action and get the advance payment
refunded. Therefore, it is important to follow the terms and conditions of the contract by
the business as it can cause loss to the business by losing customers, goodwill and many
similar things. On the contrary, individuals should not contravene otherwise, it can land
them in the jail and huge fines can also be imposed.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Antons, C. and Hilty, R. M. eds., 2015. Intellectual Property and Free Trade Agreements in the
Asia-Pacific Region. Springer.
Casanovas, P. and et. al., 2016. Semantic web for the legal domain: the next step. Semantic
web. 7(3). pp.213-227.
Garnett, S. T. and et. al., 2015. Biological, ecological, conservation and legal information for all
species and subspecies of Australian bird. Scientific data. 2. p.150061.
Millar, Y., 2015. Telecommunications infrastructure and the urban landscape. Australian
Planner. 52(1). pp.60-70.
Mowbray, A., Chung, P. and Greenleaf, G., 2016. A free access, automated law citator with
international scope: the LawCite project. UNSW law research paper, (2016-32).
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