Description

For courses in business law and the legal environment of business

This comprehensive textbook not only helps students develop a thorough understanding of the legal environment of business, but also enhances their ability to engage in critical thinking and ethical analysis, and ultimately survive in an increasingly competitive global environment. The following features of this text are designed to ensure that the authors’ goal–to develop critically thinking students who understand the important concepts of business law and the legal environment of business–is attained.

Features

Critical thinking skills are developed through a superior, comprehensive, one-of-a-kind approach.

• An explicit critical thinking model from the author of the best-selling critical thinking textbook is presented in the first chapter:
  • The eight-step model has as its base the traditional method of case analysis, but adds crucial critical thinking questions to incorporate ethical analysis. The steps include: Facts, Issue, Reasons and Conclusions, Rules of Law, Ambiguity, Ethical Norms, Analogies, Missing Information.
  • The steps in the model are clearly explained, and students are encouraged to apply the steps to every case in the text.
• Questions for Further Exploration, including both critical thinking and ethical analysis questions, are incorporated at the beginning of each chapter and after selected cases to reinforce the skills students learn in the model.
• “Thinking Critically about Relevant Legal Issues” essays give students additional opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills.
  • Located at the end of each chapter, these essays let students extend their use of their newly developed critical thinking skills beyond cases to the kinds of arguments they will encounter in their daily lives.

An emphasis on the global environment helps prepare students for working in countries outside of the United States, or for U.S. companies with dealings in foreign companies or countries.

• Both the stand-alone and infusion approaches are presented.
• Chapter 9 focuses explicitly on the global environment of business.
• Global considerations are integrated into every chapter through global dimensions sections and the Comparative Law Corner feature, which shows students how U.S. law compares to that of other nations around the world.
  

Additional features distinguish this text’s teaching and learning advantages:

• Students see the links connecting the law to other disciplines.
  • Linking Law and Business boxes in every chapter explicitly state how the law in an area directly affects or is affected by a concept in one of the core areas of business, such as accounting, managing, or marketing.
• A balanced mix of classic and current cases includes key U.S. Supreme court decisions handed down as recently as 2013.
• NEW! Significant updating of the cases: The classics from previous editions and those that students find especially helpful and interesting have been retained, while others have been replaced with more current cases of high interest to students that capture the most current changes in the law, for example: AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion et ux (Chapter 4), Florida v. Jardines (Chapter 5), and Bilski v. Kappos (Chapter 14).
• NEW! Updated case problems: Approximately one-third of the case problems from the Seventh Edition have been replace with more current ones.
• For Future Reading features at the end of each chapter give interested students short lists of books and articles related to the chapter’s material to help them further their learning about new areas of the law.
  • NEW! Many of the suggested readings have ben updated to emphasize more current legal issues.
• NEW! Applying the Law to the Facts features provide hypothetical situations to which students can apply legal concepts they have just learned—an excellent check on their understanding of new legal concepts.
• NEW! Cyber law material is reorganized and updated by integrating it throughout the book in chapters where it is substantively appropriate, rather than confining the in

New to this Edition

Additional features distinguish this text’s teaching and learning advantages:

• Students see the links connecting the law to other disciplines.
  • Linking Law and Business boxes in every chapter explicitly state how the law in an area directly affects or is affected by a concept in one of the core areas of business, such as accounting, managing, or marketing.
• A balanced mix of classic and current cases includes key U.S. Supreme court decisions handed down as recently as 2013.
• NEW! Significant updating of the cases: The classics from previous editions and those that students find especially helpful and interesting have been retained, while others have been replaced with more current cases of high interest to students that capture the most current changes in the law, for example: AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion et ux (Chapter 4), Florida v. Jardines (Chapter 5), and Bilski v. Kappos (Chapter 14).
• NEW! Updated case problems: Approximately one-third of the case problems from the Seventh Edition have been replace with more current ones.
• For Future Reading features at the end of each chapter give interested students short lists of books and articles related to the chapter’s material to help them further their learning about new areas of the law.
  • NEW! Many of the suggested readings have ben updated to emphasize more current legal issues.
• NEW! Applying the Law to the Facts features provide hypothetical situations to which students can apply legal concepts they have just learned—an excellent check on their understanding of new legal concepts.
• NEW! Cyber law material is reorganized and updated by integrating it throughout the book in chapters where it is substantively appropriate, rather than confining the information to one chapter.

Table of Contents

Brief Contents
PART ONE
Introduction to the Law and the Legal Environment of Business 
1 Critical Thinking and Legal Reasoning 
2 Introduction to Law and the Legal Environment of Business 
3 The American Legal System 
4 Alternative Tools of Dispute Resolution 
5 Constitutional Principles 
6 White-Collar Crime and the Business Community
7 Ethics, Social Responsibility, and the Business Manager 
8 The International Legal Environment of Business 
PART TWO
Private Law and the Legal Environment of Business 
9 The Law of Contracts and Sales—I 
10 The Law of Contracts and Sales—II 
11 The Law of Torts 
12 Product and Service Liability Law
13 Law of Property: Real and Personal 
14 Intellectual Property 
15 Agency Law 
16 Law and Business Associations—I 
17 Law and Business Associations—II 
PART THREE
Public Law and the Legal Environment of Business 
18 The Law of Administrative Agencies 
19 The Employment Relationship 
20 Laws Governing Labor–Management Relations
21 Employment Discrimination 
22 Environmental Law 
23 Rules Governing the Issuance and Trading of Securities 
24 Antitrust Laws 
25 Laws of Debtor–Creditor Relations and Consumer Protection 
Appendix A  The Constitution Of the United States 
Appendix B  Uniform Commercial Code (2000 Official Text), Article 2