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Summary Business Law
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Summary of Business Law for BA1 Business Economics at the VUB.
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BUSINESS LAW PART 1: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION BUSINESS ECONOMICS IChapter 1: Sources of law
When is a rule a legal rule?
- Legal rules
o Rules that are set by the State, enforced by collective means and have very
specific sanctions, such as incarceration, fines, compensation of damage, …
- A substantial part of law exists in the
form of (legal) rules
o How you should or should not behave
o Definitions, competences, ...
- Not every rule is a legal rule
o Religion rules are not legal rules, you can’t apply them. (ex. The 10
commandments)
o Economic rules are not legal rules, you can’t apply them.
o Etiquette rules are not legal rules, you can’t apply them.
- Positive law
o laws that are explicitly created by means of legislation or judicial decisions.
o “positus” (Latin) = “laid down” -> law that has been written down
o Offers legal certainty
- Lege lata
o the law that is valid here and now
o are the only rules that we apply
o As opposed to rules de lege ferenda (“future rules”, rules that are in the
making) or past rules that no longer apply
o Not every rule de lege lata is, however, laid down (e.g. unwritten rules,
binding legal principles, ...)
- Legal certainty
o Certainty about the content of law
§ Makes it unnecessary to invoke an authority to settle a legal dispute,
as the outcome can be predicted in advance
o Certainty that the law will be enforced
§ If people are left to their own devices when it comes to enforcing their
rights, this decreases the certainty that the rights will be respected
o Certainty that the law will be applied consistently
§ Similar cases are treated in a similar fashion
- Legal certainty does not always result in the “best” solution to a problem
o The purpose of law is to end or prevent disputes, not to make sure that the
best solution is met
§ It is difficult to objectively state what is right or wrong
o Legal truth does not always coincide with reality
§ Can be harsh, but is necessary in order to obtain a smooth functioning
society
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,BUSINESS LAW PART 1: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION BUSINESS ECONOMICS I
Historical development of (private) law
- Roman law
o Played a big role in the European law
o Law of the people (between tribes or families
§ Spoken laws who were considered legal laws
§ Legal rules are born when you use legal penalties against them
§ Legally binding rules by shaking hands seen by a witness
o Customary law
§ Guidelines for behavior that emerge in society, over time, based on
mutual expectations
§ Unwritten and not the result of legislation
§ Is immutable, you can’t change it and it’s not up to you to question it
§ It evolves as society evolves
o Codified law
§ Written customary law
§ Difference with positive law:
• The law does already exist before writing it down, in case of
positive law the new law is invented while writing it down
• Invented in Roman law for the plebeians (lower class) because
they were afraid that the pontiffs (who belonged to the
patricians and who interpreted the law and decided the
content of the law) would turn the laws at their advance so
they decided to write the law down and publish the customary
law it in the 12 tables (oldest type of legislation in Europe)
2
,BUSINESS LAW PART 1: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION BUSINESS ECONOMICS I
1650 national law immerged
- WRE
o Rome was plundered by Germanic tribes and felt (476)
- ERE
o Existed until the fall of their capital Constantinople (1453)
o Before they fell they made a cultural summit with the creation of the “Corpus
Iuris Civilis”
§ The body of civil legislation
§ Was an attempt of the Emperor to codify existing Roman Law
§ 3 parts
• Codex: legislation
• Digest: experts writhing about law (what is law, how do you
interpret it,…)
• Institutiones: text book or syllabus (simplified version)
- Germanic tribal law
o Reappears after the Germanics had invaded the WRE
o Everything went back to start
o Roman system was nowhere to be found
3
, BUSINESS LAW PART 1: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION BUSINESS ECONOMICS I
After fall of WRE
- Continent
o 11TH century: one of the oldest universities was build -> University of Bologna,
Italy
o Remained divided in tribes
o They started teaching about the Digest
è Reception of Roman Law on the continent
o Started also studying Canon Law
§ Law of the Church
§ Marriage, wills, …
o Students all over Europe came to study there and when they came back they
spread the Roman laws all over Europe
o Reception of Roman law as a “ius commune”
§ Continental equivalent of the English Common Law system
§ This took time because people were used to their local system
§ Over time they saw that Roman law was more developed and they
started to degrade the local law and the “ius commune” took place
- England
o Battle of Hastings (1066) prevented the reception of the Roman Law in
England
§ Willem the conqueror conquered most of England and decided to
unify English law
• He sent out royal justices throughout the country to administer
the law (they decided, if there where legal disputes, how they
should be solved)
• They had to apply the same law throughout entire England
è Birth of the common law legal system
è Was further promulgated (officially put into effect) with
the establishment of Central Courts
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