Indian Institute of Management Kashipur

Post Graduate Programme

LEGAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS (LAB)

Course Details:

Academic Session : 2017-18

Term : II
Course Name : Legal Aspects of Business

Name of Instructor(s) : Prof Baharul Islam

Contact Info : Phone +918392811111, e-mail: bislam@iimkashipur.ac.in

Prerequisites : Nil
Cross-listed with : Nil

Course Objectives

This core course on Business Law focuses on the fundamental relationship between law and
business and is ideal for those planning careers in a wide range of business areas including
professional accounting, business management, international trade and industrial relations. It
will equip the students with important skills in teamwork and in written and oral
communication as well as high-level analytical, problem solving and research skills.

This course will examine common legal issues that affect business transactions in the
marketplace. Students will learn about the legal framework, dispute resolution, sales
contracts, trade, and other legal issues and risks.

Business law touches everyday lives of the managers through every contractual deal entered
into. A contract, usually in the form of a commercial bargain involving some form of
exchange of goods or services for a price, is a legally binding agreement made by two or
more persons, enforceable by the courts. As such they may be written or oral, and to be
binding the following must exist: an offer and unqualified acceptance thereof, intention to
create legal relations, valuable consideration, and genuine consent (i.e., an absence of fraud).
The terms must be legal, certain, and possible of performance. Business law, on national and
international levels, is continually evolving with new areas of law developing in relation to
consumer protection, competition, and computers and the Internet.

Hence, the main objectives of this course are to improve the ability of students to:

1. PLO1a, PLO1b :Learn the basics of Business Laws and Company Law
2. PLO1c: Develop an awareness about the responsibilities (legal) of a global manager
3. PLO1g: Synthesize new knowledge and apply it to present and future problems.
4. PLO2d: Identify ethical implications in a given business problem from the legal
contexts.
5. PLO2e: Development of social sensitivity skills among graduates based on laws of the
land

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6. PLO3b: Develop an ability to make Business decisions based on the legal
implications involved
7. PLO4a, PLO4b: Inculcate an ability to evaluate business competitiveness in trans-
border legal contexts of different countries and understand management issues from a
global legal environment.

Learning Outcomes

Legal Aspects of Business course will help students to learn how to recognise, analyse and,
where possible, avoid many of the legal problems that can arise in the course of common
business transactions. Further, and perhaps more importantly, where such avoidance is not
possible, students will acquire knowledge and skills that will empower them to intelligently
request, understand and act on legal services and advice. These are vital business skills that
are relevant not just to business in the context of the Indian legal system but also in the
context of the legal systems of the many other 'common law' countries around the world.
Thus, as the accountability and personal liability of professionals, business managers and
public servants continues to grow, a strong grounding in business law is increasingly being
seen as an attractive attribute for potential employers both nationally and internationally. This
course will equip students to seek administrative positions in corporate sector and perform
better in planning and implementing business projects that involves layers of legal
compliances, regulations and judicial interventions.

Pedagogy

The course will be primarily taught though a combination of class discussions, presentations,
case law exercises, and legal debates. Some of the topics will be covered through class
debate/mock court on the theme of the session. Specifically, the course has the following
pedagogical inclusions:

1. Class lectures and discussions

2. Analyzing important cases, court judgements with industry responses
3. Term Projects (Live cases)
4. Debating divergent aspects of a case through mock court/debate

Class Participation

Class Participation includes discussion on assigned readings, cases, student presentations,

examples etc. It also includes individual responses to the case questions before the class.
Please note that Quality of the class participation is most important. Sheer quantity is neither
sufficient nor necessarily desirable.

Students are expected to complete the assigned reading (mostly cases discussed in the
textbook under relevant topic) prior to each class and to contribute to class discussions.
Further, a list of important cases will be circulated prior to the class that the students will
study the legal aspects of the case and come prepared for active participation in class
discussion. Students are required to search through Court Cases (Supreme Court Case

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Database online) and identify a case on a particular topic and write a background paper for
legal arguments as well as theoretical understanding during discussion.

Quizzes

Quizzes are an important component of the course. There will be both announced and
surprise quizzes. Surprise quizzes will be based on the prescribed readings of that session.

Term Project

The term project is a strategic legal response plan in a given situation being faced by a
business in terms of its legal implications. This group project gives you an opportunity to test
and advance your ability to understand and analyze legal scenarios, your role in the case and
its impact on your functions. It requires a good grasp of legal concepts, strong decision-
making and team-work skills.

a) The length of the report should be between 12 and 15 typed pages.

b) Project Reports should be submitted at least one week before the end of the course.
c) The criteria of evaluation will be the depth of research, originality of the arguments
and legal analysis of the case, and judicial precedence in the given case. The ability to
use a common law / laws of natural justice is also an important parameter of
evaluation.

Resources Required for the Course

A. Prescribed Text Book

The prescribed textbook for this course is:

Legal Aspects of Business (6th Edn) Paperback

By Akhileswar Pathak
Publisher: McGraw Hill Education;
ISBN-10: 9339205405 / ISBN-13: 978-9339205409

B. Additional References if any

In addition to the prescribed textbook, students are also expected to read the bare Acts/Laws
which are available online in public domain

Evaluation Method

Component Weightage Duration Of Open

(%) Examination /Closed
Book
1 Mid Term Examination 25 2 hours Closed PLO1a/b
Book

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2 End Term Examination 25 2 hours Do PLO1c/g
PLO2d/e
3 Quiz 25 15-30 minutes Do PLO1a/b
4 Term Project 25 _ _ PLO4a/b

SESSION-WISE PLAN

Session Topics Readings*

1 Introduction to Law, Society and Business 1
2 Indian Contract Act 1872 2-3
3 Nature and kind of contract, Offer and acceptance of 4-5
offer
4 Capacity of parties and consideration, Free consent 6-7
5 Void agreements and contingent contract; Performance 8-9
of contract
6 Discharge of contract; Remedies for breach of contract 10
and Quasi contract
7 The sales of Goods Act 1930 11-13
8 Bailment, Pledge and Lien and Hypothecation 15-17
The Negotiable Instrument Act 1881 18-20
9 The partnership Act 1932 25
10 Consumer Protection 26-27
11 The Competition Act 28
12 Company Law 29-31
13 Meeting and Constitution of the Company, 32-33
14 Role of the Directors 34
15 Intellectual Property Rights 35-36
16 Business and the Constitutional Rights, Property 37-38
17 Foreign Exchange and Management 39
18 Information Technology Act, 2000 Bare Act
19 Arbitration and Reconciliation
20 Environmental Law
*NOTE: Actual Chapters Numbers in the text book may vary according to the edition/print.

Kindly inform if any Guest Faculty is invited for the course (Yes/No): TBA

If yes, name, designation & affiliation details of the Guest Faculty:

Not Sure Yet. Shall be informed in due course
Course Policies:

1. Responsibility for Course Materials: You are responsible for all material covered in
class. If you are absent, you are responsible for obtaining the information you missed.

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2. Classroom Behavior: We expect you to participate in class activities in a mature and
appropriate manner. Disruptive or otherwise unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated.

3. Academic Conduct:
All members of the academic community at IIM Kashipur are expected to practice and
uphold standards of academic integrity and honesty. Academic integrity means representing
oneself and ones work honestly. Misrepresentation is cheating since it means students are
claiming credit for ideas or work not actually theirs and are thereby seeking a grade that is
not actually earned. Following are some examples of academic dishonesty:
i. Cheating on quizzes and examinations. This includes using materials such as books
and/or notes when not authorized by the instructor, copying from someone elses paper,
helping someone else copy work, substituting anothers work as ones own, theft of exam
copies, or other forms of misconduct on exams.
ii. Plagiarizing the work of others. Plagiarism is using someone elses work or ideas
without giving that person credit; by doing this students are, in effect, claiming credit for
someone elses thinking. Whether students have read or heard the information used, they
must document the source of information. When dealing with written sources, a clear
distinction should be made between quotations (which reproduce information from the source
word-for-word within quotation marks) and paraphrases (which digest the source of
information and produce it in the students own words). Both direct quotations and
paraphrases must be documented. Even if students rephrase, condense or select from another
persons work, the ideas are still the other persons, and failure to give credit constitutes
misrepresentation of the students actual work and plagiarism of anothers ideas. Buying a
paper or using information from the World Wide Web or Internet without attribution and
handing it in as ones own work is plagiarism.

iii. Falsifying records or providing misinformation regarding ones credentials.

iv. Unauthorized collaboration on computer assignments and unauthorized access to

and use of computer programs, including modifying computer files created by others and
representing that work as ones own.

v. Unless they specifically indicate otherwise, instructors expect individual, unaided work on
homework assignments, exams, lab reports and computer exercises, and documentation of
sources when used. If instructors assign a special project other than or in addition to exams,
such as a research paper, or original essay or a book review, they intend that work to be
completed for that course only. Students must not submit work completed for a course taken
in the past or for a concurrent course unless they have explicit permission to do so from both
faculty members.

4. Attendance: I do not take attendance on a daily basis. As far as I am concerned, you are an
adult and it is your decision whether or not you attend class. However, your decision not to
attend a class may have negative consequences for your class grade.
5. Late submission: Any late submission beyond the deadline (even by few seconds) will
result in 0 point. Except in case of emergencies, with a doctor's note, any questions
about late submission will not be entertained.

6. Missed exam: There is no make-up for the missed exams unless the student has
discussed and made an arrangement with the instructor for a valid reason beforehand. In all

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other instances, the student must produce a valid doctor's note for the day the student missed
the exam. Such doctor's note must be produced in the same week the student missed the
exam.

7. Grade Discussion: It is the students responsibility to monitor his or her own grades and
raise any questions s/he may have within one week of the grades assigned.

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