Capter 1 - The Legal Environment Of Business in the Information Age

Question 1

Antitrust Law

Answer 1

Law that protects commerce from illegal restraints on trade that businesses may impose, attempting to assure the public of access to competitive pricing and quality.

Question 2

Bill of Rights

Answer 2

The first 10 Amendments to the US constitution. Fundamentally important personal rights are included.

Question 3

Civil law

Answer 3

Public and private laws dealing with public and private rights, as opposed to criminal actions. Redress usually involves monetary awards.

Question 4

Common law

Answer 4

Law developed by “court” decision rather than by legislative creation. Early U.S. Common law was based on English custom and judicial decision, with continuing development from U.S. Court decisions.

Question 5

Constitutional law

Answer 5

At the federal level, law based on the U.S. Constitution; at the state level, law based on state constitutions.

Question 6

Consumer protection law

Answer 6

Body of law intended to protect consumers in their ordinary usage of financial institutions, their interactions with other sales vendors, the privacy of their records, and their use of computers.

Question 7

Criminal law

Answer 7

Law that deals with crimes–i.e., with wrongful acts that violate society’s rules for which criminal punishments, including jail or even execution, are required.

Question 8

Equitable remedy

Answer 8

A court remedy, seeking fairness, when monetary awards are not adequate to achieve that goal.

Question 9

Executive, legislative, and judicial branches

Answer 9

The three branches of the federal government, each of which has its own duties and powers. The legislative branch (congress) writes our laws, the judicial branch (courts) interpret laws, and the executive branch (headed by the president) handles the governments administrative tasks including the enforcement of laws.

Question 10

Injunction

Answer 10

A court order to a party to stop doing something that could cause irreversible harm to the other party.

Question 11

Intellectual property

Answer 11

Unlike land or a building, intellectual property is an asset that has no physical (tangible) existence. It is the product of a creative (intellectual) process.

Question 12

Law

Answer 12

A collection of enforceable rules of conduct, aimed at controlling, or at least placing acceptable limits on, human behavior.

Question 13

Legal remedy

Answer 13

A court remedy generally providing monetary compensation.

Question 14

Precedent

Answer 14

A case decision that is used to determine decisions in subsequent cases that have similar sets of facts.

Question 15

Private law

Answer 15

Law governing disputes between citizens.

Question 16

Procedural law

Answer 16

Law that provides the rules for conducting the courtroom and related procedures in the event of a lawsuit.

Question 17

Public law

Answer 17

Law governing the relationship between government and citizens.

Question 18

Rescission

Answer 18

Cancellation of a contract, generally with the contracting parties returned to their pre-contract status.

Question 19

Specific performance

Answer 19

A contract remedy in which the court awards the plaintiff what was promised in the contract by the defendant.

Question 20

Stare decisis

Answer 20

The common law standard under which judges (courts) are bound to follow decisions set by precedents from prior court decisions.

Question 21

Statute

Answer 21

Law enacted by a legislative body. Federal statutes are enacted by Congress and state statutes by state legislatures.

Question 22

Substantive law

Answer 22

Law that spells out the rights and duties of parties to a lawsuit.

Question 23

Supremacy

Answer 23

The constitutional standard under which federal law is the law of the land, with any state-created laws subordinate to federal laws so that state laws that conflict with federal law are invalid.

Question 24

Tort

Answer 24

A civil wrong, not involving a contract, that results in injury (physical or economic). A tort results from violation of a legal duty rather than a contract duty.