BSC (Hons) Business Management - Business Law Exam: UK Legal System

This assignment, prepared for a BSC (Hons) Business Management course, delves into the intricacies of UK business law. It begins by defining law within the UK context and differentiates between public and private law, detailing the characteristics of criminal and civil law. The assignment then identifies the three distinct legal systems in the UK: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, highlighting their historical origins. Furthermore, it explores the principal sources of law in the English legal system, including legislation, case law, European Union law, and international law, explaining their hierarchy and characteristics. The analysis extends to the impact of these laws on multilingual organizations, emphasizing the need for compliance in the global market. Finally, the assignment focuses on employment law, illustrating its direct impact on commercial organizations, discussing its features, and the crucial role it plays in protecting the rights and safety of employees within the UK.

BSC (Hons) BUSINESS MANAGEMENT WITH
FOUNDATION
SEMESTER 1, EXAMINATION 2021/22
BUSINESS LAW
MODULE NO: BMP4002
Exam Paper Release Date & Time: Saturday 13 August 2022 at 10:00am
Submission Cut-off Date & Time: Monday 15 August 2022 at 10:00am
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ANSWER BOOKLET
All the pages of the answer booklet should be submitted including blank ones.
Please type your answers in the spaces provided.
Insert additional pages where required.
Student Name
ID Number
[There are THREE questions. You are required to answer all THREE questions. For each
sub-questions, use heading such as “Answer to the Question no. 1(i)” or “Answer to the
Question no. 1(ii)” etc. Start writing you answer from this page (page 2).]
1.0 The UK Classifications of Laws
(i) Provide a clear definition of law within UK Context
The law is concerned with a rule or set of rules that are enforced by the courts. The rules
are regulated by the government of the state. In simple words, the rule of law in the UK
context is a fundamental doctor in which every individual needs to obey and submit to the

law. It is not arbitrary action by other people or groups that means no one single person is
above the law (Deb, 2022). It is identified that the United Kingdom does not have any
written constitution as they are fundamentally defining the principles in their unwritten
constitution. It becomes necessary to understand the law of the United Kingdom because
it is different from other countries and if any person wants to survive in the United Kingdom
that it becomes necessary to understand the definition of law.
(ii) Define and discuss the characteristics of the two main classifications of laws in UK
It is necessary to understand the classification of United Kingdom law as it is included
many laws such as criminal law, civil law and other principle areas of non-statutory civil
law. It is identified that the UK is classified into two important parts which are private law
and public law. Public law is defined as the one in which the government has intervened
and there is a relationship between the state and the individual citizen. On the other hand,
private law is concerned with governance which is found in the relationship between
private organisations and individuals. It becomes very important to understand that civil
law is an important part of private law so when an individual comes to the difference
between criminal and civil law then it is very important to know this fact. It is identified that
civil law covers many important areas such as deals with contracts, negligence, probate,
family matters, land law and employment. On the other hand, criminal law is found to be
one of the important parts of public law which defines the boundaries of acceptable
conduct (Craig and De Búrca, 2020). If it is found that a person breaks the criminal law
then it will be considered an offence which they committed against society as a whole.
There are some points which are mentioned below that help to understand the
characteristics of these two classifications of laws in the context of the UK:
 Criminal law has come under public law and it deals with the large crime and
offences which perform against society. In the case of criminal law, it is identified
that a person who believes that a crime has been committed and contacted the
police for an investigation comes under this law. There are chances that police
arrest the people interviewed during the investigation who comes under
surveillance. It is identified that once the case is resolved then the person who
committed the crime will be charged. That means the report centre on to crown
prosecution service which will then start criminal proceedings against the suspect
(Palombo, 2019). Then it becomes the responsibility of CPS to provide all the
evidence and proof beyond the reasonable doubt that the defendant has committed
the crime. It may be included sentences for fines and community service or
imprisonment.
 In the case of civil law, it is identified that the country quotes are based at over 200
locations. In the civil cases, it is identified that the general claims involved less than
€25000. It also includes danger to a person so if a person believes that an
individual or an organisation has committed something wrong then he/she can
complete a claim form and send it to the appropriate court which includes the High
court and country court.
(iii) Identify the three different Legal systems in UK
It is identified that day the United Kingdom has three important separate legal systems
which include one each for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This
system shows its historical origin. It is identified that there is a fact that both Island in
Scotland and later Northern Ireland retain their legal systems under the act of Union 1707
and 1800. It is identified that the England and whales have a common law legal system
which was created by judges and it originated during the reign of King Henry ll. On the
other hand, if Scotland has found it is own independence that means it is very clear that
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they have a different judicial system with its jurisdiction (Chouaibi, Chouaibi and Rossi,
2021). So they have not appeared common law system but they have a mixed system.
Some important similarities are found with Roman-Dutch law. It is identified that now many
modern laws apply to the whole of Northern Ireland but still there are some differences.
2.0 The UK Source of law
(i) Identify and briefly explain the hierarchy of the principal sources of laws in the
English Legal System
There are some principal sources of law found in the English legal system which is
necessary to understand and including legislation, case law, European Union law and
the European convention of human rights. Legislation is referred to as statute law and it
is the term which is applied to country written law. In the case of United Kingdom
legislation, it includes an act of parliament which is enacted or consolidated. It includes
the Magna Carta 1215, act of settlement 1701, bill of rights 1689, etc. The second one
is case law which includes an important source of key legal principles. It is specifically
related to the preservation of rights of the individuals against the rule of law and the
state. In the case of European Union law, it includes European Union membership and
retained European Union law, etc.
(ii) Explain the characteristics of the sources of laws identified above giving
examples of each
After finding important sources of law now there are some characteristics mentioned
below that help to take an idea about the sources of law:
 One of the important sources identified is legislation that includes many important acts
of parliaments. It is identified that the UK has not any written constitution and they have
many important elements in their statutes that have been enacted by parliament. Some
important acts of parliament include the Magna Carta 1215, Acts of union 1706-07,
parliament Act 1911 and 1949, bills of rights 1689, the act of settlement 1701, the public
order Act 1986, the police and criminal evidence Act 1984, human rights act 1998,
constitutional reform act 2005, Acts of devolution, etc.
 The second source is case law which included a common law that is found an important
source of key legal principles. It becomes necessary for an individual to understand that
case law includes a relation to the preservation of the rights of the individual
(Business. Arrowsmith, 2018). That means it focuses on the preservation of rights so
that individuals can enjoy their rights.
 European Union law is also found to be one of the most important sources of law which
include European Union membership and retained European union laws. It is found in
the UK formula joined the community of European on January 1st 1973 and European
law was incorporated into UK law. But now European Union law applies in the UK under
the provisions ECA due to Brexit. It is found that ECA was repealed with effect from
31st January 2020.
 International law is also an important source of law which provides many rules and
regulation that needs to be abided by the United Kingdom. They need to be subject to
the international law of obligations.
(iii) Discuss the impact of the respective laws on the multilingual organisation
It is very important to understand the impact of the respective laws which are found
in the source of United Kingdom laws on the multilingual organisation. It becomes
necessary for each organisation that they should obey the laws they want to work in
different nations. Due to globalisation, every organisation is now focusing on
entering the global market so that they can grab more and more good opportunities
for success and growth (Salhi and et.al., 2019). But for that purpose, they must
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legally survive in the global market. This is the main reason that multilingual
organisations need to understand and follow all the rules and regulations which
come under their area. It provides a positive as well as negative impact on the
organisation. The positive impact is that if organisations are very well played with
legally then they achieve the goals and objectives but the negative impact is due to
the high number of laws, sometimes it is identified that the organisations are unable
to follow every law because In practice it is not possible.
3.0 Give examples of how the UK law making process have a direct
impact on commercial organisations focusing on ONE of the below
list:
Explain and give the features of one of the following laws:
(i) Contract law
(ii) The law of Tort
(iii) Employment law
Doing business in the United Kingdom is not an easy task for the organisation because it
needs to follow every law related to its business. One of the important laws which are
necessary for organisations is employment law. This law provides a direct impact on
commercial organisations. How business operates in the market is controlled by
legislation. Employment law has the main purpose to protect the health, safety and rights
of employees. It is identified that there are approximately 4 million limited organisations
founds in the United Kingdom which includes 21 million full-time employees. It becomes
the responsibility of employers that they need to obey the employment law of the UK and
they should protect their employees (Wilson and Strevens, 2018). This is an important fact
that UK employment law provides much legislation on holidays, dismissal, discrimination
and pay. Employment law appears very complex and varied especially for business
owners. Employment law can protect the employees' and employers' rights and
responsibilities. It covers a vast area of the legal system which includes important topics
and involved the employment relationship. The employment law covers the laws which
help to reduce discrimination in the workplace and it is found in the equality act 2010 which
is covered under employment law.
Some more important activities covered in the employment laws are mentioned below:
 The first important act is the health and safety act 1974 in which employers as a
responsibility to provide safe machinery and premice to the employees so that they
are able to do their work with all safety. Safety is most for the employees and
without that, they will not able to do business. According to the act, it is necessary
for the employers of the organisation to ensure that workers should not be affected
by the work. In addition to this, the cost and benefits of health and safety at work
include that organisation requires some extra cost so that they are able to train their
staff and maintain the standards but this does not become the cost and the long
term because it reduces the staff absences in long term. In addition to this, it also
provides a good health and safety record which is really very helpful for
encouraging the recruitment of good workers.
 Employment protection act 1978 is also found an important act which covers
employment law. It is the act in which employees need to be given a written
contract of employment so that they are able to protect against unfair dismissal
(Cairney and et.al., 2019). It is important to know that there are many cases where
employers terminate the employees without any notice so according to this act, it is
identified that redundancy they should be paid if the workers the more than 2 years.
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 Another important activity is the equal pay act 1970 which decreases the
discrimination of pay that is normally found by employers due to gender
differentiation.
Reference List (if Any)
Cairney, P., and et.al., 2019. How to conceptualise energy law and policy for an interdisciplinary
audience: The case of post-Brexit UK. Energy Policy, 129, pp.459-466.
Chouaibi, S., Chouaibi, J. and Rossi, M., 2021. ESG and corporate financial performance: the
mediating role of green innovation: UK common law versus Germany civil law. EuroMed Journal of
Business. Arrowsmith, S., 2018. The Law of Public and Utilities Procurement Volume 1 & 2:
Regulation in the EU and the UK. Sweet and Maxwell.
Craig, P. and De Búrca, G., 2020. EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials UK Version. Oxford
University Press, USA.
Deb, E., 2022. International Business Law-Critical Review on Corporate Governance in
UK. Available at SSRN 4074105.
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.
Salhi, B., and et.al., 2019. The mediating role of corporate social responsibility on the relationship
between governance and tax avoidance: UK common law versus French civil law. Social
Responsibility Journal.
Wilson, J.C. and Strevens, C., 2018. Perceptions of psychological well-being in UK law
academics. The Law Teacher, 52(3), pp.335-349.
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