Learn about the laws that business managers must follow to protect their consumers, employees, and overall operations by exploring torts, contracts, property law, intellectual property, and employment law.
Law, in its simplest form, is used to protect one party from another. For instance, laws protect customers from being exploited by companies. Laws protect companies from other companies. Laws even protect citizens and corporations from the government. This course will introduce you to the laws that managers must abide by in the course of conducting business. Laws almost always shape a company's decision-making process: a bank cannot charge any interest rate it wants to charge – that rate must be appropriate. Car manufacturers must install hardware and develop new technologies to keep up with regulations designed to reduce pollution. By the end of this course, you will have a clear understanding of the legal environment in which businesses operate.
- Unit 1: Nature and Sources of Law
- Unit 2: Litigation versus Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Unit 3: Torts
- Unit 4: Contracts
- Unit 5: Property Law
- Unit 6: Intellectual Property
- Unit 7: Employment Law
- Unit 8: Criminal Law and Business
- Unit 9: Business Organization
- Unit 10: Business Regulation
- Identify sources of law in the United States;
- Describe the function and role of courts in the US legal system;
- Differentiate litigation from methods of alternative dispute resolution, and discuss the process of each;
- List the elements of the major torts;
- List the essential elements of a valid contract;
- Describe how a contract can fail;
- Summarize the remedies available for breach of contract;
- Distinguish between real and personal property;
- Identify the various interests in real property and how they pass;
- Identify the requirements to hold various rights under intellectual property laws;
- Analyze the impact of the digital era on intellectual property rights;
- Distinguish between at-will employment and contractual employment;
- Identify laws that generally regulate the employer-employee relationship;
- Identify criminal acts related to the business world;
- Define and identify examples of white-collar crime;
- Describe the various forms of business organization; and
- Identify the major laws regulating business in the United States.