Statutory & Regulatory Schemes and their Impact on Business

Introduction

Through the course of day-to-day business, businesses interact with customers, vendors, other businesses, banks, community agencies and many other stakeholders. Business owners have to ensure through their operations that they protect consumer rights and interests. In order to operate most business owners must have employees – some full-time, some part-time, some white collar, some blue collar, contract employees and the list goes on. This area of law encompasses hiring, firing, retention, incentives, benefits, professional development, and much, much more relating to employee/employer relationships. Businesses have to consider the impact their operations have on the environment including, but not limited to, pollution of air, land, and water, resource sustainability, waste management, natural resources, and fish and game regulations. There are laws to assist and protect the creators of new ideas, inventions, and other intellectual property. There are also laws to help a business who may have been impacted financially as a result of a major disaster or through the owners own mismanagement of the financial operations. In managing these day-to-day activities, businesses have to comply with numerous statutory and regulatory laws that govern the various business schemes. In this module we will take a brief look at some of the legal elements that regulate business practices. Keep in mind that this review just touches the surface of what is entailed within these legal schemes.

Key Terms

Review the key terms for this module below.

Assets – property owned by an individual or business
Liabilities – debt or financial obligation on an asset
Debtor – party who buys goods on credit or borrows money
Creditor – party who sells the goods or lends the money
Liquidation – the conversion of assets into cash
Bankruptcy – legal process by which a debtor can make a fresh start through the sale of assets to pay off creditors
Municipality – a city or town that has corporate status and local government
Reorganization – the action or process of changing the way in which something is organized
Insolvency – inability to pay one’s debts
Intellectual Property – an original work fixed in a tangible medium of expression
Patent – gives an inventor the exclusive rights to make, use, or sell an invention
Copyright – the right granted to an author, composer, photographer, or artist to exclusively publish and sell an artistic or literary work
Trademark – distinctive symbol, mark, or slogan used by a business to identify and distinguish its goods from products sold by others
Infringement – the act of breaking the terms of a law, an agreement, etc.
Tangible Asset – property that has substance and can be touched, such as a TV, a car, etc.
Intangible Asset – property that has no substance, such as music, poetry, etc.

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

Bankruptcy Law
In this lesson we will look at the basics of bankruptcy and review the different types of bankruptcy.

Intellectual Property Law
In this lesson, we will discuss the rights and protection for an owner’s intellectual property.

Federal Consumer Protection Law
In this lesson, we will take a look at the agencies and laws formed to help protect consumers’ rights and interests.

Environmental Law
In this lesson, we will discuss some of the basic principles of environmental law.

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