Court Structure and Proceedings - Essay Example

Business Law on Contracts Name Course Tutor Date Business Law on Contracts Part 1 Introduction The art of doing business and being successful in it especially in an international destination depends on the business environment that the particular business will be operating on. According to company law, the major focus on the success of a company is by having a legal environment that is much conducive with limited legal restrictions and relevant judicial processes that ensure all legal procedures are followed. Countries all over the world are creating the most efficient business working environments, not only for investment purposes but also to allow the diversity in products, globalization, and competition that spurs the production of quality goods by individual companies. According to the world bank, the ease of doing business in any country is measured by the legal-political environment created by the government of the host country. A comprehensive research that highlights the five key indicators for enforcing contracts and the benefits of these indicators reveals how the impact specifically on small and medium enterprises. 1. Court structure and proceedings Any business involved in a legal tussle will always use the court as a reference point to solving the stalemate, especially when it occurs between a foreign investment company and the local business environment. The ease of doing business will only be achieved when court proceedings are smooth and faster in clearing of business cases. This is due to the fact that businesses spend a lot of investment in hiring legal services and need to get value for their money especially when they have made investments in many parts of the country. Australia for example has a well-established court structure with distinctions of business cases and industrial courts that handle business issues and contract cases. A contract case often requires reviews of different memoranda and agreements, which need to be carefully carried out if a non-discriminatory judgement is achieved. Therefore, the separation of the court structure into industrial courts will play a role in easing contract cases, which will help in creation of business environment that allows ease of business. The benefits of having a court structure that is separated from other cases and smooth proceedings include; allowing a smooth transition of property from one party to another with minimal disturbances that might slow down economic processes. The other benefit is that when the handling contract issues, it is important to have enough time to handle a single case and give it an inside look. When the court structure allows the establishment of an industrial court that deals with business issues including contacts, enough time is taken since the court system is specialized. The other benefit is that smooth proceedings in the court system allow for transparency and the information acquired from the judgments can be used to study the legal environment of the host country. 2. Case management It is important for a country to have a perfect management system of contracts and businesses to allow the integration of both domestic and foreign contracts without having to depend on host or foreign constitutional platforms. The law of contracts suggests that the more efficient and effective a contract case is managed, the more elaborate contract issues become. Case management procedures go through analyzing different clauses of a contract and investigating all the parties involved towards the maturity of a specific contract. When conducting an analysis of a specific contract, reference needs to be done according to the laws of the land. In Australia, every contract is signed and agreed upon with reference to the business laws that exist under its business constitution aspect. When the process is clear, contracts are signed under legal terms, both parties assenting to what they understand and agreeing upon business terms that favor themselves, the business as well as the legal business environment, without hidden clauses that might bring confusion. A major benefit of case management is that the external business environment made of different organizations can apply new recommendations in uniform. The management of a case will only post positive results with the achievement of an influencing the entire business environment. According to the world bank, case management is a measure of various business aspects in contracts in determining how a country manages cases that involve contracts. Case management in contracts as well has the benefit of adding to the fast development of the economy. For instance, in Australia, case management of contracts is always carried out in a rigorous manner, which creates transparency, hence an enabling investment environment for both foreign and domestic investors. 3. Court automation The court automation indicator is defined by smoothness of handling cases, application of legal instruments in an efficient manner and relativity to the changing technology systems due to globalization. Small and medium businesses are the most common type of businesses, hence the rate of contraction is also high in this sector[And15]. This translates to more legal issues in terms of understanding and signing contract agreements especially for trading companies. An automated legal process in handling contract cases ensures that the right business gets the right contract and engages in legal business. This is done through a background check of particular businesses, where every business will be analyzed in relation to their allegiance with the local business terms controlled by the government. This will include tax returns, employment procedures corporate social responsibility as well as abiding to business regulations[And15]. Court automation procedures have to refer to these elements and when the process is automated, it becomes easier to analyze contract issues. One benefit of court automation especially for small and medium enterprise that are finding their stability in competitive markets is that there is easy retrieval of contract information from a database. Information is acquired in an efficient way, which is used to conduct a background check and terms of agreement of a particular contract. This reduces the time wasted by businesses following up cases in court. For businesses involved in asset-contract issues, court automation processes create an avenue where a business can have fore information of assets before purchasing them. Businesses always engage in the malpractice of selling similar assets to more than one party, which creates a breach of contract[And15]. However, when the court system is automated, the initial owner of an asset is easily identified as well as subsequent parties in the purchasing of that asset are also identified. This then makes it easy to avoid losses and huge legal fees paid to the court systems. 4. Alternative dispute resolution There are specific cases that might need an alternative channel for resolving a dispute. Any country that has a good working and investment environment should have alternate channels for dispute resolution to give allowance for small and medium businesses that cannot afford legal fees[And15]. For instance, France, a leading economy in the European Union has set tribunals that handle business cases including contract issues for domestic businesses. This reduces the congestion in the industrial court system to allow for faster settlement of cases. Unlike in the formal court system, alternative conflict resolution platforms offer a wider platform from which businesses can adequately exhaust their claims without a time deadline. However, it should be noted that an alternative dispute resolution platform is only applicable for major business malpractices, where information has to be acquired first, and facts gathered before proceeding to the court system. One benefit of having an alternative dispute resolution platform is that backlogging is reduced. A parallel system is created that is in line with the laws of the land but works in a similar way just like the judicial system in administering justice in business and contract cases. Therefore, issues are settled amicably and in a quick manner. The other benefit is that the party that feels that the judgement was unjustified can proceed to the court system and since the facts are already gathered, the court system can execute judgment, based on founded information. Additionally, an alternative dispute resolution platform is cost-effective for small and medium businesses since few fees are involved in such a process. 5. Quality of judicial procedures The higher the quality of court procedures, the better the business environment. When judgment and handling of business cases is of quality, the resultant effect is that the external business environment composed of investors will have confidence in doing business in such a country. For instance, in USA and Britain, business judgments are always categorized and have different levels, which are meant to sift through a case and come up with concrete facts that can be used to make a judgment. Therefore, this ensures that there is quality judgment. One major benefit of such quality procedures is that it acts as a marketing tool for foreign investment since cases are handled in a transparent manner[And15]. The other benefit is that compensation procedures are elaborate and before a business launches a contract case in court, it has to understand the possible outcomes. Therefore, prompt decisions are made beforehand. Part II The Research Process Description The research process began with sifting a lot of research material in finding relevant information about laws of contracts. The research was objective but began with subjectivity in finding all information that was about contracts and the World Bank. The research also used online materials especially on the World Bank, which has its special website, where information can be obtained. However, during information about the World Bank, some information could not be accessed and required special log in which was not available at that time. However, the problem was resolved by visiting the website with a registered log in that gave access to the needed information. Information provided by the government on the performance of small and medium entreprises also proved helpful in the research. The research process involved a deep insight into contract and business laws of major world economies, which were USA, UK, France and Australia and having a focus on the legal procedures involved when handling contract cases, especially for small and medium enterprises. The research also looked at various World Bank reports on the legal environments of different countries, which was used to assess the ease of doing business in such environments for the SMEs. There was a focus on globalization and application of automation services in different countries. The automation analysis was an assessment of the applicability of the intervention to identify whether countries were benefiting from court automation process in handling and managing business cases. Problems encountered in the research processes included a wide analysis platform of studying world economies with vast information. However, this was solved by narrowing down on classifications, where countries were classified as developed, developing and less developed, after which sampling was used to acquire information about their legal environments. References And15: , (Gibson, 2015, p. 135), And15: , (Gibson, 2015, p. 141), And15: , (Gibson, 2015, p. 221), And15: , (Gibson, 2015, p. 269), And15: , (Gibson, 2015, p. 188), Read More