Corporate and Business Law

Explore the eight capabilities of corporate and business law, including the English legal system, contract and tort, employment, company formation, fraudulent and criminal behavior, financing, insolvency, and ethics.

Explore the English legal system, including sources of law, case law and precedent. Understand the roles of courts from magistrates to the Supreme Court.

Explore the law of torts, focusing on negligence, duty of care, standard of care, causation, remoteness, and defenses, with professional liability and defences like res ipsa loquitur and contributory negligence.

Explore the elements of contract law, including offer and acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, and key cases on formation, communications, and exceptions.

Explore how contract terms are formed, including express and implied terms, representations that become terms, and exclusion clauses under consumer contracts and the sale of goods act.

Analyze breach of contract, its discharge, and the meaning and effects of breach. Summarize damages and equitable remedies, including liquidated damages, mitigation, and injunctions or specific performance.

Explore the contract of employment, distinguish employees from independent contractors, and navigate dismissal, redundancy, and remedies through statutory rights and key case law.

Learn the agency relationship, the roles of agents and principals, and the authority and duties binding contracts, including actual and ostensible authority, ratification, and agency by necessity.

Learn the formation and constitution of partnerships under the Partnership Act, including general, limited, and limited liability partnerships, and the authority and liability of partners.

Explore corporations, legal personality, and the veil of incorporation, with emphasis on limited liability, types of companies (public, private, unlimited), and landmark cases like Solomon v. Solomon.

Explore how promoters form a company, including duties, pre-incorporation contracts, and promoter liability. Examine registration procedures, objects, name restrictions, documents required, and the effects of incorporation on the corporate veil.

Explore the memorandum of association and articles of association, their formation, alteration, and contractual effects within company law, including model articles and key cases.

Understand share capital, ordinary and preference shares, and treasury shares, and learn about transfer rights, preemption, and variation of clause rights, including minority protections.

Explore loan capital and debentures, distinguish fixed and floating charges, learn registration of company charges, and understand insolvency remedies, priority of secured creditors, and receivers, administrators, and liquidators.

Examine the duties and powers of the company secretary and auditors, appointment and removal procedures, accounting records, annual accounts, and the duty of care in negligence cases.

Discover how annual general meetings and general meetings operate, with ordinary and special resolutions, voting, and minutes. Learn notices, quorum, proxies, and shareholders’ rights to requisition meetings and resolutions.

Explain the roles of executive and non-executive directors, de jure and de facto directors, appointment and removal, and key duties under the Companies Act 2006 and UK governance code.

Explore how capital maintenance safeguards shareholders and creditors. Learn rules on share allotment, rights issues, and capital reduction.

Explore insolvency administration, voluntary and compulsory liquidation, and administration as alternatives to winding up, including appointment powers, order of asset distribution, and director duties.

Explore the Bribery Act 2010, insider dealing, and money laundering regimes, and examine offenses, defenses, and the six anti-bribery principles shaping corporate compliance.