Capter 1 - The Legal Environment Of Business in the Information Age Flashcards
Antitrust Law
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.
Bill of Rights
The first 10 Amendments to the US constitution. Fundamentally important personal rights are included.
Civil law
Public and private laws dealing with public and private rights, as opposed to criminal actions. Redress usually involves monetary awards.
Common law
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.
Constitutional law
At the federal level, law based on the U.S. Constitution; at the state level, law based on state constitutions.
Consumer protection law
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.
Criminal law
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.
Equitable remedy
A court remedy, seeking fairness, when monetary awards are not adequate to achieve that goal.
Executive, legislative, and judicial branches
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.
Injunction
A court order to a party to stop doing something that could cause irreversible harm to the other party.
Intellectual property
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.
Law
A collection of enforceable rules of conduct, aimed at controlling, or at least placing acceptable limits on, human behavior.
Legal remedy
A court remedy generally providing monetary compensation.
Precedent
A case decision that is used to determine decisions in subsequent cases that have similar sets of facts.
Private law
Law governing disputes between citizens.
Procedural law
Law that provides the rules for conducting the courtroom and related procedures in the event of a lawsuit.
Public law
Law governing the relationship between government and citizens.
Rescission
Cancellation of a contract, generally with the contracting parties returned to their pre-contract status.
Specific performance
A contract remedy in which the court awards the plaintiff what was promised in the contract by the defendant.
Stare decisis
The common law standard under which judges (courts) are bound to follow decisions set by precedents from prior court decisions.
Statute
Law enacted by a legislative body. Federal statutes are enacted by Congress and state statutes by state legislatures.
Substantive law
Law that spells out the rights and duties of parties to a lawsuit.
Supremacy
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.
Tort
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.
