Legal Environment of Business

• Administrative law: the body of law created by administrative agencies in order to carry out their duties and responsibilities.

• Binding Authority: any source of law that a court must follow when deciding a case.

• Breach: the failure to perform a legal obligation.

• Case Law: the rules of law announced in court decisions.

• Citation: a reference to a publication in which a legal authority can be found.

• Civil Law: the branch of law dealing with the definition and enforcement of all private or public rights, as opposed to criminal matters.

• Civil Law System: a system of law derived from that of the Roman Empire and based on a code rather than case law.

• Common Law: the body of law developed from custom or judicial decisions in English and U.S. courts, not attributable to a legislature.

• Constitutional Law: the body of law derived from the U.S Constitution and the constitutions of the various states.

• Criminal Law: law that defines and governs actions that constitute crimes (wrongful actions committed against society for which society demands redress).

• Cyberlaw: all laws governing electronic communications and transactions.

• Defendant: one against whom a lawsuit is brought; the accused person in a criminal proceeding.

• Equitable Principles and Maxims: general propositions or principles of law that have to do with fairness.

• Historical School: A school of legal thought that emphasizes the evolutionary process of law and looks to the past to discover what the principles of contemporary law should be.

• International Law: the law that governs relations among nations.

• Jurisprudence: the science or philosophy of law.

• Law: a body of enforceable rules governing relationships among individuals and between individuals and their society.

• Legal Positivism: a school of legal thought centered on the assumption that there is no law higher than the laws created by a national government.

• Legal Realism: a school of legal thought of the 1920s...