You are on page 1of 6

1. Why Nations are Economically Weak or Strong?

(a) Identify several reasons put forth to explain why nations are prosperous or
poor.
There are several factors that play into the prosperity or poverty of a
nation. A major reason is the availability of natural resources. Access to
natural resources explains most nations prosperity. An adequately
enforced system of equally applied law creates a strong foundation for
economies to prosper. Education and technology will always set apart
nations that are looking to become leaders.
(b) What does this section say is the foundation of the private market and
prosperity?
The presence or the absence of a modern private market is the single
most significant reason why some economies are strong and others are
weak.
2. Law
(a) Define law. Compare and contrast law and custom.
Law is the rules of the state backed by the enforcement. Customs are
norms of the society. Customs can be looked at as the rituals and the
social acceptable rules of society. These can change depending on the
age, gender, ethnicity, etc. of the person. Law is very different in that it
transcends social norms and are truly the rules of a society.
(b) What role do the courts and police play in the legal system?
Courts and the police interpret and enforce the law, respectively. These
two entities of the legal system enforce and maintain order in society.
3. The rule of law.
(a) Define the rule of law. How does the rule of law differ from law as the
commands of the state?
The rule of law is more of an ideal rather than a complete fact. Often
times, special interest groups attempt to persuade law makers to benefit
these groups at the expense of others. The rule of law attempts to apply
laws generally and equally. Through the rule of law, can hold lawmakers
accountable who excessively favor special interest groups.
(b) Explain why the rule of law is an ideal rather than a complete fact.
The rule of law are laws that are made to be general and equal
applications of laws. They apply to all or most members of society and
they apply to various groups in the same way.
4. Property
(a) What is property? How does property differ from resources?
Property is a legal right that allows you to exclude others from your
resources. Resources are land or common property.
(b) Why is property important to society? To private enterprise?
Property is important in society as it is the legal right to ownership. Private
enterprises, the basis of a free market capitalist system. It is a business
unit established, owned and operated by private individuals for profit,
instead of by or for any government or its agencies.

5. Property in its broadest sense


(a) Explain why property can be thought of as the central concept underlying
western legal systems.
Property includes an ownership of individual constitutional and human
rights in ourselves that excludes the state from interfering with these
rights.
(b) What does James Madison mean when he says we have property in our
opinions and free communication of them.
James Madison means that the physical resources property is not the only
thing protected, but also human rights, like freedom of speech, freedom of
religion, and freedom from unreasonable intrusion by the government.
6. Jurisprudence
(a) Define Jurisprudence and name four schools of jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence is the philosophy of law. The schools are natural law, positive
law, historical law, sociological jurisprudence, and legal realism.
(b) Describe the main difference between the jurisprudence of natural law
and sociological jurisprudence.
The natural law theory asserts that law contains universal moral
principles, these principles are observable in nature and we can determine
them through human reason. Sociological jurisprudence supports the idea
that law can and should change to meet new developments in society.
7. Common law and civil law.
(a) What is common law? Why is the United States a Common law
country?
Common law emphasizes the role of judges in determining the
meaning of laws and how they apply. Common law originated with the
English settlers, who came to where it would become the United States
(b) What is the primary distinction between common law and civil law legal
system?
Common law emphasizes the role of judges in determining the
meaning of laws and how they apply. Civil law relies more on legislation
than judicial decisions for law.
8. Public and private law.
(a) What is public law? Give three examples of public law.
Public law includes those matters that involves the regulation of society as
opposed to individuals interacting. Examples of public law, constitutional
administrative, and criminal law.
(b) Explain private law. Give the examples.
Private law covers those legal problems and issues that concern your
private resource relationships with other people. Examples of private law
are Property, Contract and tort law.
9. Civil law and criminal law
(a) What is the difference between civil law and criminal law?

Civil cases include suits for breach of contract or tort cases, such as cases
for personal injuries. Criminal law cases, involve a representative of
government, attempting to prove the wrong committed against society
and seeking to have the wrong doer punished by the court system.
(b) Explain the two ways that the words civil law are used in this chapter.
The chapter uses "civil law" to refer to a civil law legal system, where civil
law relies more on legislation then judicial decision for law. Also used
when discussing civil, (non-criminal) lawsuits.
10. Substantive law and procedural law.
(a) Define substantive law and procedural law.
Substantive law defines the legal relationship of people with other people
or between them and the state. Procedural law deals with the method and
means by which substantive law is made and administered.
(b) Is contract law substantive law or procedural law? How about a rule
specifying that a defendant has 30 days to respond to a complaint?
Contract law is substantive law. A rule specifying that a defendant has 30
days to respond to a complaint is procedural law.
Sources of law
11. Federal Law
(a) Explain what it means to say that constitutions are the "highest laws of
the nation"?
The U.S constitution is the supreme law of the nation. It overrides all other
sources of law.
(b) Explain the important distinctions
between state and federal constitutions.
The state constitutions authority as a source of law applies only to the
particular states that have adopted them. If state constitutional provisions
conflict with the U.S Constitutional or with federal constitutional at all, the
provisions are void as a source of law, meaning that they do not apply to your
question about pollutants.
12. State Law
(a) Give two additional terms for legislation.
Legislation adopted by congress or a state legislature is usually referred to
as a statue or act.
(b) Why is uniformity of law important to business? How can legislators
achieve uniformity of the laws affecting business? What is the most
significant uniform law affecting business?
Uniformity of law is important to business because if the law lacks
uniformity, it decreases the certainty necessary for the conduct of interstate
business and the general ordering of society. Legislators can achieve
uniformity of the law by congress enacting a single law that preempts varying
state laws. Or by the national conference of commissioners on Uniform state
laws trying to promote uniformity by drafting model acts. The most significant
uniform law affecting business is the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

13. Judicial decisions or case law


(a) Define stare decisis. What are its advantages? Disadvantages?
Stare decisis means that the court should follow prior decisions in all cases
based on substantially similar facts. The advantages are that people become
secure in their right of property. Then they become willing to invest resources
in fixed locations for factories and other immovable valuables because they
were certain the state would not seize these resources for its own use. It also
helps specify in great detail the boundaries of our property-based legal
system, and it protects what is "proper" to people from the interference of
others. The disadvantages include the volume of cases. Searching through
hundreds of thousands of cases and then identifying and reading the
significant ones is a very large task. This is both time consuming and
expensive.
(b) What is the distinction between a precedent and a dicta in judicial
decisions, and how this distinction relate to stare decisis?
A precedent is a prior judicial decision relied upon as an example of a rule
law. Dicta are statements made in a judicial opinion that are not essential to
the decision of the case. The precedent relates to stare decisis because the
holdings in prior cases are precisely what was necessary to the decision
reached. The dicta is whatever else the court said.
(c) Alex was on a coast to coast trip by automobile. While passing through
Ohio. Alex had a flat tire, it was fixed by Sams turnpike service station, and
later, while Alex was driving in Indiana, the tire came off and Alex was
injured. Alex was hospitalized in Indiana for the injuries. What rules of
substantive law will the Indiana court use to determine if Sam is at fault?
Explain.
The Indiana court will apply the "conflicts of law" to determine if Sam is at
fault. The rules vary from state to state.
14. Sources of law hierarchy in review
(a) Explain the relationship of case to the other sources of law.
Case law court cases, as they interpret all of their sources may or may not
void sources lower than the source being interpreted.
15. Legal sanctions
(a) Why are legal sanctions important in a property-based legal system?
Property-based legal system gives people control over what they produce
so that they give production.
(b) What is the difference between a sanction and a remedy?
Sanctions are penalties imposed for violations of a law. A remedy is the
actions or procedure that is followed in an order to enforce a right or obtain
damages for injury to a right.

16. Sanctions for Criminal Conduct


(a) What are the sanctions for criminal conduct?

Death, imprisonment, fine, removal from office, disqualification from holding


any office and from voting.
(b) Name three purposes of criminal sanctions.
17. Sanctions for Breach of Contract
(a) What is the purpose of compensatory damages?
Compensatory damages are awarded to make the victim of the breach
"whole" in the economic sense. Such damages compensate the party for all
losses that are direct and foreseeable result of the breach of contract. The
objective is that the party be in as a position as he or she would have been
in, had the contract been performed.
(b) What is specific performance contract?
Specific performance of a contract is an order by the court commanding the
other party actually to perform a bargain as agreed.
18. Sanctions for Tortious conduct
(a) What are the two premises of tort liability?
- 1. Intentional torts: require the plaintiff to prove the defendant intended
to cross the boundaries.
2. Negligence torts: this tort requires the plaintiff to show that the
defendant injured what was proper to the plaintiff through unreasonable
behavior.
(b) When are punitive damages appropriate in a tort case?
When the tort is intentional or the unreasonable conduct is extremely
severe.
19. Sanctions for violating statutes and regulations
(a) What types of sanctions are used for the violation of statutes and
regulations?
The sanctions are criminal conduct, breach of contract, or tortious
conduct.
(b) What is an injunction?
An injunction is a court order directing a party to do or refrain from doing
some act.
A property-based legal system and corporate governance
20. The specific sense of corporate governance
(a) What is the "specific' sense of corporate governance?
- Corporate governance rules protect the property interest that the owners
have in corporations.
(b) Why might some managers try to artificially raise or "puff up" the market
price of their stocks? Describe several ways they can do this.
Managers often have salaries, bonuses, or stock options that are tied to the
corporation's profitability or stock price. If they manipulate the corporation's
profit by puffing up assets or concealing debts, they may be able to raise
their incomes by millions of dollars even as they mislead the owners about
the true situation is disclosed. Other examples are: managers engaging in
insider trading of stock, running up stock prices in order to exercise stock

options, and taking advantages of business opportunities that rightfully


belong to the corporation and its shareholders.
21. The general sense of corporate governance
(a) What is the "general sense of corporate governance?
In a general sense, corporate governance also applies to the legal
relationships that business have with each other, with their customers, and
with society.
(b) Discuss how effective corporate governance contributes to the creation of
economic wealth.
It has been suggested that lack of adequate corporate governance has
allowed the risky lending practices that ultimately have led to the biggest
recession since the great depression of the 1930s.

You might also like