Contract Law

Introduction

In this introductory course to business law, you will examine real-world court decisions pertinent to the topics that you will be studying. This is not a course designed to train lawyers, and you are not expected to be an attorney-in-training. However, you will be asked to do a substantial amount of independent research in the scholarly and professional resources of the field. You will be called upon to locate court cases relevant to the topics of contracts and torts and to write an analysis for each case.

To help you get your research started, some prominent searchable databases of court cases have been recommended for you in the assessment resources. Try to imagine yourself as either the plaintiff or the defendant in the cases you review, to make these cases more meaningful to your life.

Use the resources provided to familiarize yourself with the legal terminology as early as possible, in order to help you make sense of the legal language found in court cases. The terminology that you will learn in this course will be useful in both a scholarly and everyday context.

Overview

Contracts are the heart and soul of commercial transactions. Different types of contracts bind parties together in business dealings. Review contracts that you have signed recently—a lease, an employment agreement, an extended warranty—to examine not only the language but also the scope of these agreements. Examine the language in the contract that outlines how disagreements will be resolved, and the penalties that adhere to either party for breach of the contract.

Preparation

The first step in preparing your case law analysis is to locate a published court decision and select an organization you believe would be impacted by the decision.

• Choose a decision about contracts. To help you get started, use the Capella University Library Legal Research Library Guide and these well-known searchable databases of court cases. Try to imagine yourself as either the plaintiff or the defendant in the cases you read to make these cases meaningful to your life:
  • Findlaw. (n.d.). United States Supreme Court cases. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court
  • Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Supreme Court: Most recent decisions. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/
  • Nolo. (n.d.). Legal topics. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia
  • Oyez, Inc. (n.d.). https://www.oyez.org/
• Select an organization not a party to the case that you believe would be impacted by that court decision. It can be an organization you work for or have worked for, an organization you would like to work for, or some other organization.
• Use the following media simulations to help you with this assessment:
  • Analyzing a Case.
    • This multimedia walks you through a written court decision and explains each part’s purpose.
  • Business Law Foundational Concepts.
    • This multimedia will help you to understand your reading materials and articles you find.
      • Review the terms or concepts listed under the tabs Foundational Legal Terminology and Contracts and Bankruptcy Terminology. You may start by studying the terminology listed in the Transcript view (click Transcript at the lower right corner of the screen). After you’ve studied the terms, go back to the interactive view, and try matching the terms to their definitions.
        • Use this multimedia to view several approaches to ethical thinking that can be applied to business.
      • In addition to your textbook, use the transcript as another resource to quickly look up some of the more common terms. This terminology will be useful in personal, scholarly, and professional settings.
  • Four Ethical Theories.
    • This multimedia sets forth several approaches to ethical thinking that can be applied to business.

The Case Analysis Report: Executive Briefing Exemplar [DOCX] shows a sample case law analysis. You may wish to refer to it as you work on your assessment.

Instructions

Once you have selected a decision and an organization impacted by the decision, assume you’re a senior manager in the organization you selected and that you were asked to prepare an analysis of the court decision and brief the executive team of the organization about the impact the case might have on the company. Your briefing should include a summary of the case, as well as an evaluation of how the court’s decision impacts the organization from a business, legal, and ethical perspective. Be sure to list your case citation in the References page at the end of your briefing.

Step 1: Exhibit information literacy skills as applied to business law.

• Identify the court, the parties who are before the court, and the date of the decision.
• Ensure that your briefing provides an accurate context in terms of who brought the lawsuit and the outcome of the case.
• Report research from a recognized authority that adds insight into the meaning, history, or impact of the case with relevant legal research from credible databases or online sources.

Step 2: Summarize the facts and ruling of a legal case and its impact on businesses.

• Provide a brief background and context associated with the case. Summarize the facts in no more than 1-2 paragraphs.
• Identify the specific disagreement between the parties. Was there a dissenting opinion? If so, explain it.
• Summarize the court’s ruling, including its rationale.
• Analyze the impact of the case on businesses, including both negative and positive impacts.

Step 3: Explain how the court decision impacts legal and ethical compliance in a business environment.

• Identify the ethical and legal implications for a business that were suggested by the court’s decision.
• Discuss whether or not the conduct of a party in the case was ethical or unethical.
• Propose and explain an ethical theory that describes why a party’s conduct was ethical or unethical.

Step 4: Explain how a legal case could impact a specific organization not a party to the case.

• Explain the impact of the court’s decision on your selected organization. In light of the court’s ruling, how might the executive team of the organization make future decisions or policy?