Lecture 1 Definitions
Corporations: The fundamental difference between a corporation and other types of business entities is that the law recognises a corporation as a separate legal person in addition to its office holders. As a legal person, an officer of a corporation is required to act in an ethical manner as set out by legislation (and the corporations / industry code of ethics).
Common Law: Unenacted laws created through reported decisions of judges in superior courts usually includes the law of equity
Civil law system: Based on Roman Law, Primary source of law is legislation (enacted), Inquisitorial E.g: Western Europe, Indonesia, Japan etc.
Civil law: (Citizen v Citizen, Organisation, or Gov’t) covers actions brought by one individual against another which results in remedies for the winning party and liabilities for the losing on : emphasis on remedies - $$$$, Standard of proof is: On the Balance of Probabilities
Criminal law: (State [Gov’t] of Fed [Gov’t] v Accused) covers actions brought by the State [Gov’t] Crown (R) on behalf of the state against a person for doing an act the State considers to be a crime and which is punishable by a penalty : Emphasis on punishment - jail, fines etc and Standard of proof is: Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Common law system: Sources of law include both legislation and judge made (case) law, Accusatorial/adversarial - E.g: Commonwealth nations (i.e. Australia, Canada) & the USA
Ethics is concerned with what is right and what ought to be and not accepting what is, as members of society.
Equity: Equity developed as a result of the growing inflexibility and rigidity of the common law - It is supplementary only; rather than a complete legal system in its own right. In the event of a conflict with the common law, equity will prevail and Equity law does not apply to all civil disputes and it has no application in criminal law
International law: is concerned with regulating the conduct between nation states-...