Business Law and Ethics
Business law covers contracts, torts, agency, employment, and business organizations; ethics covers normative frameworks and compliance. For a valid contract, know offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and legality, plus the statute of frauds requiring writing for certain contracts (for example, sale of goods above a threshold, land, and contracts that cannot be performed within one year). Distinguish express and implied contracts, and void, voidable, and unenforceable agreements. Breach remedies include compensatory, consequential, and liquidated damages, and specific performance for unique goods.
Tort law distinguishes negligence (duty, breach, causation, damages) from intentional torts and strict liability. Product liability theories are negligence, warranty, and strict liability. Agency law covers fiduciary duties of loyalty and care and the distinction between actual, apparent, and implied authority. Business forms include sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, and corporation, differing in liability and taxation; the corporate veil can be pierced for fraud or commingling.
Ethics frameworks: utilitarian (greatest good), deontological (duties and rights), and virtue ethics (character). Traps: treating an illegal act as merely unethical, ignoring that a contract with a minor is voidable rather than void, and confusing apparent authority with actual authority.
Worked example: an agent without actual authority signs a supply deal the principal's conduct made seem authorized; the principal may be bound under apparent authority. Rule of thumb: ask what a reasonable third party would infer from the principal's behavior.