Introduction to Business Law

LECTURE 1
 Introduction to Law

🞂 What is Law?
🞂 What are the sources of law?
🞂 Types of law?
🞂 Rule of Law
🞂 The various sources of business law.
 What is Law?
🞂Law is a term which does not have an universally
accepted definition. To put it simply Law is a set of
rules governing every human actions.

🞂Law, as it is, is the command of the Sovereign. It

means, law has its source in sovereign authority,
🞂law is accompanied by sanctions, and
the command to be a law should compel a course of
conduct.
For example

🞂 HLA Hart- defines law as a system of rules. E.g.

criminal rules, civil rules, various procedural rules etc.
🞂 Austin- defines law as the command of the sovereign
backed by threat of sanction. E.g. if you steal you will
be punished or if you break traffic rules you will be
fined etc.
🞂 Holland- defines law as a rule of external human
action enforced by the sovereign political authority. He
identifies three essential characteristics of law-
⮚Law is rule relating to the actions of human beings.
⮚Law attempts to regulate the external actions of human
beings
⮚Law is enforced by the state.
🞂 Salmond – defines law as a body of principles
recognised and applied by the state in the
administration of justice.
🞂 Anson-defines law as rules regarding human conduct
in the peaceful and smooth operation of the society.
So it is observed that Law is hard to define conclusively
but nonetheless we can get an idea of various types of
law that exists in our universe.
 Types of Law
Broadly Law is divided into 2 types:

⮚Criminal Law

⮚Civil Law
 Criminal Law
Criminal Law are those law that deals with the criminal
offences committed by individuals, organisations and the
state. Criminal law includes all the laws relating to crime.
For example: theft, murder, manslaughter, assault, rape,
kidnapping, arson, fraud, cheating, forgery, criminal
damage and so on.
In criminal law the offence must be proved beyond
reasonable doubt.
 Civil Law
Civil law includes all the laws that are not criminal law. It
includes all the law relating to transactions between
individuals , organisations and the state.
For example: civil law includes laws relating to contract,
company matters, business transactions, labour law,
employment, property, land, banking, insurance etc.
 Sources of Law
The Law in any country of the world can be found from
various national and international sources. Before
embarking on the detailed sources it is important to
understand the nature of Law that prevails in one country
or jurisdiction.
Throughout the world various country follows mainly the
following sources of law-
• Common Law
• Civil Law
 Common Law
Common law can be defined as the Law that is
pronounced by the judges and is followed in later cases.
The practice of following previous court decisions is
called common law. Mainly common law comes from
England and other commonwealth countries. The main
aim of common law is to maintain consistency in legal
decisions, meaning that like cases should be decided
alike. For example UK, Canada , india.
 Civil Law
By contrast to common law, civil law is more about rules
and regulations. It tends to follow the law rather than
looking behind past decisions. In civil law countries
judges lack authority to pronounce law, where there is no
statute or fixed law. For example, China, Russia are civil
law countries.
 Constitution
Apart from the common law and civil law distinctions, the
law in any given country comes mainly from their social ,
cultural, religious and historical backgrounds.
In this regard, in any country the law mainly flows from
the Constitution. It is the Constitution that gives power to
the parliament to make law, executive to implement law
and judiciary to adjudicate law. Every country of the
world except UK, Israel and New Zealand, have a written
constitution which provides for the rules and regulations
and rights and liabilities of its citizens.
Fundamental Constitutional Concept.
🞂 The rule of law represents one of the most challenging concepts of the
constitution. As it is capable of different interpretation by different
people.

🞂 The rule of law insists that every person- irrespective of rank and status
in society- be subject to the law.

🞂 For the citizen, the rule of law is both prescriptive - dictating the conduct
required by law - and protective of citizens-demanding that government
acts according to law.

🞂 The emphasis on the rule of law as a yardstick for measuring both the
extent to which government acts under the law and the extent to which
individual rights are recognized and protected by the law.
 The institutions of a Country
In a country the main institutions that deal with the
making , implementation and interpretation of law are –
• The Parliament
• The Executive
• The judiciary
 Parliament
The parliament of a country is the main elected body that
represents the majority of the citizens choice. One of the
main functions of the parliament in a country is to make
laws.
It is the Parliament who can only make laws and no one
else, because the parliament reflects the decision of the
overall citizens in a country.
 Executive body
The executive body of a country refers to the
administration of the country. This includes various
ministries and public offices. For example the home
ministry. The executive follows the law and helps to
implement the law made by parliament.
Other governmental institutions like electricity, power,
social welfare, culture, foreign affairs etc. are also the
executive wing of the country.
 The judiciary
The judiciary is the place where legal disputes are
resolved and adjudicated. It simply means the judges and
magistrates. The judiciary deals with legal disputes and
gives decisions based on the law made by the parliament.
It includes all the courts and tribunals of a country.
 Types of law
There various types of law
• business law
• Criminal law
• Civil law
• Muslim law
• Hindu law
• Public law
• Administrative law
• Company law
• Land law
• Tort law
• European union law
• SAARC Laws
The list goes on and on….
 Rule of law
Rule of law means rule of law. Only rule that applies to all
citizens are rule of law and no one else can rule .
Professor A.V Dicey defines rule of law-
• No man is punishable unless he breaches law
• No man is above law, that is all are equal irrespective
of rank
• Rights and freedoms are best protected under the
common law.
(See book for comments and criticisms)
 Business law/commercial law

🞂 The term Commercial Law, rules relating to industry,

trade and commerce.
🞂 Particularly, laws relating to contract, partnership,
negotiable instruments, sale of goods, companies etc.
🞂 There is no fixed line of division between commercial
law and other branches of law, nor is there any conflict
or contradiction between them.
🞂 The law of contract, which is a very important part of
commercial law, is applicable not only to merchants and
bankers but also to other persons.
 Business Law
The various laws relating to business and companies can
be found from several sources –
• Companies Act 1994
• Contract Act 1872
• Banking and finance Act
• Customs and VAT Act
• Securities and exchange commission act
• Insurance Act 1938
• Partnership Act 1932
The Bangladesh legal system
The judiciary of Bangladesh is divided as follows-
⮚The Supreme Court consisting of
• Appellate division
• High court division
⮚The lower court
• District courts
• Judges courts
• Session courts
• Magistrate courts
Conclusion