Welcome to BUS205: Business Law

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

Course Description

Learn about the laws that business managers must follow to protect their consumers, employees, and overall operations. Explore conflict management strategies and legal issues, such as torts, contracts, property law, intellectual property, and employment law.

Course Introduction

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.

This course includes the following units:

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

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

[1] Identify sources of law in the United States; [2] Describe the function and role of courts in the US legal system; [3] Differentiate litigation from methods of alternative dispute resolution, and discuss the process of each; [4] List the elements of the major torts; [5] List the essential elements of a valid contract; [6] Describe how a contract can fail; [7] Summarize the remedies available for breach of contract; [8] Distinguish between real and personal property; [9] Iidentify the various interests in real property and how they pass; [10] Identify the requirements to hold various rights under intellectual property laws; [11] Analyze the impact of the digital era on intellectual property rights; [12] Distinguish between at-will employment and contractual employment; [13] Identify laws that generally regulate the employer-employee relationship; [14] Identify criminal acts related to the business world; [15] Define and identify examples of white-collar crime; [16] Describe the various forms of business organization; [17] Identify the major laws regulating business in the United States.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

Course Materials

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course at this link: Resources.

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final examination is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn 70% or higher on the final exam. The exam will be password-protected and requires a proctor.

Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. There is a 14-day waiting period between each attempt. You may only attempt the final exam a maximum of three times. Be sure to study in between each attempt! If you do not pass the exam after three attempts, you will not complete this course.

There is also a practice exam that you may take as many times as you want to help you prepare for the final exam. The course also contains end-of-unit assessments in this course. The end-of-unit assessments are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want to until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments at this link: Quizzes.

Continuing Education Credits

The certificate earned by passing this self-paced course displays not only the program hours you completed, but also continuing education credits (CEUs) for documenting successful completion of courses that are designed to improve the knowledge and skills of working adults. Many industries value CEUs, and now your certificate reflects them clearly, and they may be used to support career advancement or to meet professional licensing standards. This course contains 3.9 CEUs.

Tips for Success

BUS205: Business Law is a self-paced course, meaning you can decide when to start and complete the course. We estimate the "average" student will take hours to complete. We recommend studying at a comfortable pace and scheduling your study time in advance.

Learning new material can be challenging, so here are a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on terms, practices, and theories. This helps you understand each concept in context and provides a refresher for later study.
  • Test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned improves long-term memory retention.

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will need access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and consistent internet access to view or download resources and complete auto-graded assessments and the final exam.

To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, log into your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you don’t have an account, you can create one for free here. Note that tracking progress and taking assessments require login.

For more details and guidance, please review our complete Technical Requirements and our student Help Center.

Optional Saylor Academy Mobile App

You can access all course features directly from your mobile browser, but if you have limited internet connectivity, the Saylor Academy mobile app provides an option to download course content for offline use. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.

Download on Google Play Download on the App Store

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. All course materials, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are available at no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.

Last modified: Tuesday, 5 August 2025, 1:59 PM