Legal Studies 2700
Legal and Regulatory Environment
of Business
Syllabus
Elizabeth J. Mustard

Legal Studies 2700 Homepage
 
 
Purpose
     The legal and regulatory environment of business, emphasizing why legal duties are placed on the business community and how managers should appropriately respond to them. This course covers legal institutions, tort, contracts, property, criminal and other legal matters relating to the business community. 

   
Web Site
     You are responsible for checking the class web site regularly. All announcements, assignements and changes will be posted there. If you have administrative questions, please check the web site first. Your second source of information on administrative matters is classmates. For administrative questions, you should contact me only after you have pursued these first two options. Website http://www.terry.uga.edu/~mustard/courses/l2700/

Required Reading
     The textbook is The Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business (14th) (Reed, Shedd, Morehead, Pagnattaro). This text is required.
     Cases and readings from various sources are or will be linked directly on the outline of notes and can be found on a Cases and Readings link on the website. A tables page is also linked on the website.

Examinations and Grading
     The course grade will be based on two midterms (30% each towards average grade) and a comprehensive final (40% towards average grade). All exams will be CLOSED BOOK, no aides or helps are permitted.
     All exams will be based on both the class notes and required reading. There will be NO make-up midterm exams. If you do not take a midterm, the weight of that midterm will be applied to your final exam. Your decision must be made before the midterm begins. You cannot take the midterm or part of the midterm and later choose to drop it. This policy obviously allows students to skip all the midterms, and place 100% of their course grade on the final. Research shows that students who pursue this strategy do poorly. 
  Failure to take the final exam at the scheduled time will result in a grade of zero. Therefore, if you know that you will not be able to take the final at the assigned time, you should not take this course. Two exceptions to this rule are: 
    (1) Final exam conflict. The definition of and procedure for rescheduling final exam conflicts are outlined at the website for Office of CurriculumSystems. You can complete the necessary forms on-line from:          www.bulletin.uga.edu
                       www.curriculumsystems.uga.edu
    In this case, please let me know one week prior to the last day of classes

    (2) Family emergency or personal illness. The Office of the Vice-President for Student Affairs (110 Old College) must verify that you have a family emergency or personal illness. If this occurs please let me know before the exam or as soon as possible after the exam

The midterms will be in the classroom during the normal class period and are tentatively scheduled for
    February 17, 2009
    [TBD]
The University's final exam schedule is posted. Our exam will be in the normal classroom and is scheduled for
    8:00 am class: Tues. May 5, 2009 8 am - 11am
    11:00 am class: Tues. May 5, 2009 12 noon - 3pm
The exam grades will be posted on the site as soon as they are finished, and will include an approximate breakdown of scores into A, B, C, D and F ranges. However, I record your grades as test scores, not as letter grades. After the final your final exam score will be posted. 

The first day of classes is Thurs. January 8, 2009.
The last day to withdraw is Thurs. March 24, 2009
The last day of class will be Tues. April 28, 2009

No extra credit will be given for the course

Academic Honesty: UGA's Academic Honesty Policy known as "A Culture of Honesty" will be strictly enforced in this course. I strongly urge you to become particularly familiar with pages 6  through 8 which discusses required and prohibited conduct.


Course Outline
     A general outline is presented here. A more detailed outline is posted in the class notes. 

1. Law and Property as the Foundation for Business
2. Ethics
3. Court Systems
4. Litigation and ADR
5.
Constitutional La
6. Contracts
7.
Tort Law
8. Criminal Law
9. Intellectual Property
10. Business Organization
11. Antitrust
12. Securities
13.
Employment and Labor Laws
14. Discrimination in Employment