International Business Law Assessment - Term Paper Example

?INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW ASSESSMENT Business law has a great bearing in the success of busssines.These laws are mechanisms that have been put in place to oversee a conducive business environment. Basic fundamental business laws that apply in a business set up include, contract law, property rights, land rights, land titling system, intellectual property rights, compony law, collateral law and insolvency law. However, also to consider is the fact that business Law has also been divided into two categories namely traditional and new generation business law. Traditional business law include, labour law, environmental licensing procedure and lastly planning and construction law. In addition, the new generation business law include, market contestability which mainly focuses on anti competitive behavior and market contestability which deals with abuse of dominant position (Emerson 2009, p.78-80). Note however that, the arbitration system and enforcement capacities also have a role to play as far as business law is concerned. Under this sphere are the commercial courts and the specialized economic courts. They come in when transactions between parties are not honored and to a larger extent interpret business law to the affected parties. Business just like any other discipline which involves interaction between two or more parties cannot be wholly exonerated from instances of conflicts. This confirms the essentialities in existence of the two types of courts mentioned. To expound on our introductory classification on the already mentioned dimensions of business law, bussines law attempts to address diverse issues in a business. It enables swift and efficient enforcement of contracts ensures adequate legal protection to both private and personal property. It ensures clear frame work and mechanisms for transferring and registering property. Furthermore, it also sees to it that intellectual property get due protection and enforcement. Business law ensures stability and the existence of a frame work able to accommodate the management, oparations and establishment of companies. It foresees sound and secured regimes that can enable transactions making a business be able to obtain credit. Lastly, bussines law ensures a relatively easy and transparent market. To commence with, contract laws emphasis the fact that agreements made between or among parties in a transaction must be honored. This has mechanisms in place to ensure that parties uphold their terms of agreement throughout the transaction session. These laws protect mostly those transactions that are long term in nature. For example, an infrastructure contract between a company and the government. Such contract may span for several years which qualifies the need for mechanisms to be put in place to guide both parties during work progress until it is completed. Violation of any of these terms by any of the trading partners means that a contract law has been broken and this necessitates a further step from the affected partner. Contract laws also give a contracting partner the constitutional right to know if the other partner is credit worthy. This factor plays a role in preventing future payment disputes in case of defaults from any of the parties. This law ensures that there are mechanism and measures which are in place to enable debt recovery in circumstances of payment defaults. This may apply to scenarios where payments are made through cheques that bounce. Contract law empowers the courts to collect debts if such scenarios of payment default arise. Secondly there is high regard to property ownership which is protected in business law under the personal property rights. These states that the owner of any property has got the due constitutional authority to sell, exchange, transfer or even consume his property. Property may be listed as buildings, land, physical possessions and also intellectual property which majorly encompass innovations of mind such as music or any other invention. For instance, a situation arises that there is a tussle between two main companies on who invented a particular product. In this case study, we want to use just a recent example between two countries. Japan and Kenyan artists recently got involved in a legal tussle over the real inventors of a traditional basket made from sisal fiber known as Kiondo or Chiondo. According to Kenyan artists, Japanese tourists stole this identity and began manufacturing the same type of basket but only changing its name. The traditional basket trade grew to a big basket market in Japan eliciting outcry from Kenyan artists who had visited Japan. Their main argument was that there was an ill motive for Japanese artists to change the basket name and that they ought to have established the business as a franchise instead of a new independent industry. However, Kenya in the long run lost the case for a number of reasons. Firstly, the basket which they claimed to be originally Kenyan invention had no legal protection as stipulated in the international property ownership and identification rights. They had no substantial proof that tourists from the Japan stole the ideas of making the basket from Kenya. Currently, the basket is still a favorite of Japanese tourists who visit that country as per research carried out by the ministry of tourism. It has spread in several Asian countries and other continents but no country can now lay due claim as the original inventors of the Kiondo basket. It is the function of the business law to have in place stipulations that ensure property rights are enforced. Personal property rights dictate that there should be adequate security and protection to personal property in whatever form it takes. This includes mechanisms of compensating the legal owner in instances of expropriation. It also focuses on the rights of the individual owner to transfer property as deemed fit by him or her. If Kenyan artists had got legal proof that they were the original inventors of the kiondo basket, they could have possessed the legal obligation to transfer trading rights to the Japanese basket artists. This is only possible when the property in question be it intellectual or physical property is protected by law.Bussines law guarantees freedom to enforce rights in relation to property. The legal owner being the bonnafied holder of the property has got the final word on his property. For clarity purposes, the Japanese Constitution Stresses property rights in the following words, “Personal property is greatly safeguarded and unless specified by law may not be sequestrated or expropriated except for circumstances of public good under which the owner must fairly be compensated as per the law”. To the third dimension, land rights play a great role as it impacts on the economic growth in several aspects. First and foremost, property rights when secured in the law boosts the incentives of individuals and households. This increases their access to credit which in turn makes them invest. Land rights are essential in that it gives an investor legal protection in mortaging his property. It gives the business man the leverage to borrow incase of need to improve his business. Secure land rights also introduce and protect new entrepreneurs into formal economy. Distinction of private and public land is give due description in Business law. Note that public is not only inclined to industrial land. It goes beyond to include even the land set aside for instance tourism land and farming land (Kenneth & Clarkson 2010, p.67). In business cases land trespass is a remarkable offence that can ultimately lead to fines or even compensation if incase property is destroyed. For example, a case can be presented before a court pitting two companies. Company A has a faulty sewage system which flows to company B. If the offended company takes the case to the court, the law regarding trespass takes preeminence. In such a scenario the company with the faulty sewerage system is compelled by the court of law to compensate the offended company in line with the damage caused but as assessed by the court and not the offended company. In the fourth dimension, land titling system majorly deals with registration aspects such as claims and contracts and even general documents that specify rights to a particular property. It also deals with registration of transactions which normally occurs between parties in regard to land or property. Cases before the court indicate that some people either through ignorance or negligence of have lost land unfairly because of the fact that the land in question had not been registered. This is majorly reported in rural areas of developing countries where sensitization of property registration is still on the minimum side (Miller& Frank 2008, p. 202-204). Under business law, relevant departments play the role of sensitizing the general public on both the long term and the short term benefits of registering property including land. It also outlines how these registered properties are compensetated incase of trespass or if at all the land is to be acquired by the government for the public good. Land and property registration formalizes prospective of a well functioning economy. On to the fifth dimension, Intellectual property rights create a conducive environment for businesses to pursue research and development initiatives. It also instills confidence to various share holders to contribute and share in new technologies enabled by joint partnerships and licensed agreements. Intellectuals property rights may apply to, trademarks, new designs and copy rights. Situations have been experienced when a company split into two and each of them was claiming company ownership of the trademark. The court had to step in granting the trademark rights to the first registered company and not the affiliate which had split away. The argument of the court was that the initial company when registered had protected its trademark under the law and incase of split in the compony, a share holder was entitled to his shares in the company and the trademark ultimately was not part of his shares (Chessman 2009, p. 102-105). The sixth dimension basically deals with company law; it puts in place a legal frame work on how companies operate. It handles issues such as company formation, regulations in terms of limiting liability of members and general company’s functions and performance.Compony law protect both investors and the general public in their daily business transactions. Investment law offers grant to some businesses irrespective of their legal form. It also contains regulations in respect to transfer of shares in the Capital market.Fucntions and the capacity of an individual in a compony is foreseen by the company law since this is very essential during company formation. The seventh aspect, which is the collateral law, serves its main function during credit acquisitions. Normally the collateral or what has been given as security to guarantee credit payment becomes under temporary ownership of the credit provider.Ussually under this setting, borrowers able to present collaterals obtain larger amounts of loans in respect to their income. They normally enjoy extended payment periods with reduced interest rates as opposed to other lenders. In a legal scenario, a bank can give an individual a three million loan. The individual in turn offers his piece of land worth let us say three and a half million cash value. Should the bank customer default payment without giving a convincing reason to the bank, the court invokes the legal chapter dealing with loans and collaterals. The bank is then given the go ahead by the court to sell the piece of land in order to recover its money that could have disappeared by the customer violating payment terms (Kenneth & Clarkson 2010, p. 71-75). The collateral law in general addresses the following aspects. First it tries to promote to a larger extent low cost credit that is secured by law. Secondly it allows those who want credit to use the values of their various assets to access credit. The other factor that it simplifies obtaining security rights in a simple but efficient manner. It also plays a role in the establishment of not only predictable but also clear priority rules. This enforces rights of the creditor and also balances in fairness the interests of both the parties involved. Collateral laws create harmony in both transactional and conflict in relation to business law in respect to secured transactions. The eighth and the last aspect is the insolvency law. Insolvency may include a number of aspects. For example how the law responds when a particular firm wants to file for what is called bankruptcy. The other aspect is who should file liquidation and reorganization in a compony.It also handles on whether management should change or stay during organization. Under the above mentioned circumstances, one factor comes out clear, which the law of insolvency attempts to cushion both the stake holders and creditors rights. This makes it possible to organize capital for long term investment. It also exonerates managers from acquiring not well thought after loans that may in future be a great burden to the particular company. In conclusion, business law is complex in nature because of the various entities that exist within the business system. Each law becomes only relevant in a particular sphere and this may be inclined to several factors. These factors may include type of business, the stage of business, duration of the business and to a larger extent parties involved in the bussines.Arbitration is also a key pillar in bossiness law since disputes emerge from time to time in business transactions. Various laws put in place are unique to each scenario as a result of the diverse nature of business as a discipline. Lastly the main aim for the existence of business law is to create a conducive environment for those involved in business. Their main emphases are on fairness to various participants in the business industry. This fairness and levelised ground for the players involved means that their, property and their individual rights must be protected under the law. Though they may differ from country to country, business laws are essential for a successful business environment. References Chessman, H 2009, Business Law, 7th Ed, Jossey- Bass, New York. . Emerson, W 2009, Business Law (Barron’s Business Law), Barons Educational Series, New York. Kenneth, W, & Clarkson, F 2010, Business Law: Text and cases-Legal, Ethical, Global, and Corporate Environment, Cenage Learning, New York. Miller, R.L & Frank, B 2008, Business Law: Text and Cases (West’s Business Law). South – Western College, New York. Read More