Commercial Law
Commercial law covers traders, commercial acts, commercial obligations, and business instruments. A candidate must understand who is a trader, the obligations of commercial registration, and the distinction between civil and commercial acts. Study commercial sale, agency, distribution, and brokerage, and the rules on commercial papers such as bills of exchange and cheques.
Cheques are heavily tested: formal requirements, the effect of a missing date or signature, the duty to verify funds, and criminal consequences of a dishonoured cheque. Understand commercial prescription periods, which are generally shorter than civil ones, and the rules on commercial evidence, where written proof may be more flexible.
Traps: treating every business activity as a commercial act; assuming a cheque is invalid merely because it is post-dated; and confusing an agent with a distributor. Questions often test the liability of a signatory who signs as representative without authority.
Rule of thumb: classify the act, then the person, then the applicable rule. Worked example: a company issues a cheque signed by an employee without authority. The company may deny liability, but the signatory may be personally liable, and the notary asked to protest the cheque must record the dishonour accurately.
Study bankruptcy and preventive composition briefly, especially the effect on notarised security and the ranking of creditors.