Law and Business Essay

Submitted By tiffmoosie
Words: 620
Pages: 3

Tiffany Ly
Business Law
February 11, 2011
Robinson

Law and Business Natural law is one of the oldest of its kind. The natural law theory believes that there is a higher law and it applies to all human beings and if a law is unjust then it does not have to be obeyed. Natural law is based on fairness and equity and this can easily relate back to the world of business. One major question that lies in international business is whether or not foreign employees should have the same protection as U.S. employees. If we all have the same universal rights that comes from natural law then everyone should be covered equally. Positive law is the opposite of natural law. Legal positivism believes there is no such thing as natural rights, rather that the written law by man is the highest law of all and must be obeyed until it is changed in the right lawmaking process. The man made laws consist of codes, regulations and statues. These are important in business because businesses need rules and regulations to go by. Regulations like OSHA in the workplace help the employer and employees regulate environmental hazards. If there were no one to make these laws and regulations then there would be a lot of endangerment. Common law is created through decisions from judges from a case-to-case basis. Past cases are used to determine the outcome of certain cases. Many countries live by the common law system. Hadley V. Baxendale is a prime example on how common law is used. The case was based on a breach of contract between a mill and a courier. The mill contracted a courier to deliver a crank for repair. The courier was late and it affected the mills business. In the end, it was decided that the damages were not foreseeable. Although the case was held in England hundreds of years ago, the rule of law is used in some of today’s cases. Statutory law is a written law set down by a legislature. The law also includes statues. One of the laws that almost everyone can relate business back to is when filling out an application for employment, there is always a part that states that employers cannot discriminate against race, color, religion, national origin or sex. It goes back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act had to pass through the legislature and is quite important in the world of business. Constitutional law is the law based on the U.S. constitution and the constitutions from