JPM Publishing Business Law

SECTION 1

TASK 1

a) Meaning of the statement of “Parliament is sovereign” and Various sources of UK Law

A speech is given by the Queen in the parliament every year in the month of October or November, which announces program for legislation in parliament in the 'House of Lords' chamber in front of both 'Houses of Parliament' in a process known as State opening of Parliament, which commonly states that “Parliament is sovereign”. The meaning if this sentence is that all the laws and regulation which is made by the parliament in this process is very important and has to be followed by people. It is basically a principle of the UK constitution. This process helps the legal authority in United Kingdom to make and break any law in UK. It is an important part of UK's constitution (Beatty, Samuelson and Abril, 2018). There are several functions in the parliament of United Kingdom, which plays crucial role, such as,

• They have an authority to construct laws concerning to anything,
• Court can not question a valid Act of Parliament as they are the supreme law maker in the UK constitution.
• They can bind a future parliament, i.e., laws made by them which cannot be changed or reversed by them is not allowed.

Act of parliament is also known as primary legislation which is passed by them. It is officially accepted by the parliament. All laws made in this program have to be signed by the Queen. Legal system is a process which is used for the interpretation and enforcing any law into the system. It elaborates the rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways. Three major legal system includes statutory law, common law and equity. All these plays an important role to work in legal manner and effectively (Glover and Doss, 2017).

Sources of UK Law : There are different sources of UK law which is also known as English law. The most common sources are, legislation, common (case) law and EU and human rights law, statutory law which is explained as below :

• Legislation Law: This is a type of law which incorporates bills in it. It is divided into two different parts, i.e., Primary and secondary legislation. In primary regulations, assembly members including public acts, local and personal act, Privy Council, etc. are included in this. Wherein secondary regulation is developed by primary legislative authorities which has sub ordinate laws present in it (Piper, 2018).
• Case or Common Law: This is also known as judicial precedent or judge-made law as it derived from the decisions of the judge present in the court. This plays an important part in making law. It was created in the 12^th century by William. This law helps the court to make any decision on a particular case.
• European union (EU) Law: This is the another source which is used in UK law. It is originated from the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU). These EU laws are affiliated with civil legislation laws which helps UK courts to operate their functions smoothly and effectively. These helps in the cases like, contract or employment law. EU laws are divided into two different parts,

1. Primary Legislation: These includes the basic rules and regulations.
2. Secondary Legislation: These includes principles and objectives that are pre-set in the system.

• Statutory Law: It is used to in the written laws. A bill is presented in this law. It is one of the most important parts of law which is regulated by UK parliament. It includes law related with insurance, contract, health and safety, etc. Since seventeenth century, it has become the common source of law reform (Explain the sources of English law, 2014).
• Human Rights Law: They have a huge influence on the making of law process in UK. They are also important to create the law. Human Rights Act 1998 became domestic law to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights.

b) Role of government in law making process

In the making of law process, government plays an important role in different areas, such as, regulations, legislation, etc. Parliament have authority to make any new law or regulations and they can also change the existing rules in their legal system and they have to be followed strictly without questioning them. There are many laws which can be implemented in order to run any business smoothly and efficiently. Government helps to focus on the systematic procedure in development of any law in parliament. A meeting is conducted by the higher authorities of the court in making any new law in the system before passing any law. All the decisions made in the parliament are based on that meeting only (Clarkson, Miller and Cross, 2014). Both the houses of the parliament, which is House of Common and House of Lords has the authority to pass any bill or law in the parliament and if they found any issue or problem in these laws they can make required amendment in that law to protect it. No new law will be passed by them until all the changes have made in the existing legislation by these authorities.

Implementation of statutory and common law in the Justice Courts

Statutory and common law plays an important role in reforming the structure of the justice court. Implementation of statutory law in the system is very crucial. These are the  written laws that usually come under legislative body as it follows the process of legislation. In the process of implementing this law in the justice court, a written bill is produced in the court and based on that bill voting is conducted by them to come to a conclusion. Final decision will be passed by the judge of the justice court based on the result of that voting. All statutes made in this process are also recorded or written in writing and published for future records. This process is done to maintain the records of the court. If the final decision is found unconstitutional by the justice court, then it can be changed by a later legislative act (Statutory Law, 2018). Common law also known as case law is also very significant for the justice court. This process of applying common law in the court has involvement of legal evidences with the help of which judge will pass his judgment for that particular case. To give a fair decision, they can seek help of EU legislation in order to give effective result (Rothstein, 2016).

TASK 2

Impact of various Regulations on Business

In operating any business smoothly and work effectively, it is very important to implement various business laws into their system to function properly. As per the given case, JPM Publishing is a small company oped by three friends. After operating successfully for few years, their accountants advised them to implement some different laws and regulations to enhance their services. Implication and impacts of various regulations in JPM Publishing on their business are explained as below:

Implications and impacts of Health and Safety Regulations

The main reason behind the implementation of this law in the work place is to ensure the health and safety of their workers in the company. It is very crucial for any firm to maintain a healthy environment in the organization for their employees. There are various laws related to health and safety of their staff members, which is explained below,

• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

According to this regulation, there are various factors which has to be provided by the JPM Publishing to their employees which includes,

1. Providing adequate lighting, heating, ventilation and workspace and keep them in a clean condition,
2. Giving them staff facilities which includes toilet facility, washing facilities and refreshment, and
3. Providing safe passage ways for their staff members, i.e. to prevent them from slipping and tripping hazards which can occur in the company (What are the main health and safety regulations, 2017).

• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

This is also known as Management Regulation. According to this regulation, the main role and duties of a company are as follows,

1. Company should provide assessment of risk in its work force for their employees to ensure their health and safety.
2. They should appoint an employee who will look after the maintenance of workplace health and safety.
3. Firm should provide their employees with all the training and information related to their health and safety, and
4. They should operate a written health and safety policy for their employees in the company.

If JPM Publication implement these regulation in their system then it becomes their responsibilities to ensure the safety and health issues of their employees. This process will help them to improve their services and working environment. It will also help them to gain respect from their employees.

Implications and impacts of Equal Opportunities Regulations

These laws are very helpful for the employees who are working with the company to get equal opportunities in the organization. There are different laws and regulation which can be opted by JPM Publication to implement in their system and give equal chance to their workers. Various Acts and regulation related to this are explained below:

• Equal Pay Act of 1963

According to this act, it protects men and women from sex-based discrimination in wages who works equally in the organization. It helps them to get equal payment regardless of their gender. Equal work means that the jobs being compared required equal skills, effort and responsibilities, and are performed under similar working conditions. This act will help them to get better opportunities in their career and perform good in the organization (Regulations, Guidance and Policy, 2018).

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967

According to this act, it forbid employment discrimination of the employees who are above 40 years or older than that. There are several factors which are included in this act, such as,

1. Discrimination in hiring, promotions, wages, or firing/layoffs.
2. Denial of benefits to older employees.
3. Statements or specifications in job notices of age preference and limitations.

Other than these acts and regulations, there are various other laws also which can be implemented by the JPM Publication, like, Disabilities Act of 1990, in which it gives opportunities to disabled people to work in any organization without being discriminated by the employer of firm. This will help them to increase their confidence and earn self respect. According to The Equality Act of 2010, this will ensure that company is not discriminating their employees on the basis of their gender, age, race, religion, disability, etc. in the work station. Discrimination in the company can occur in various ways (Employee dismissal and redundancy rights, 2016), such as,

• Direct discrimination,
• Indirect discrimination,
• Discrimination by Association,
• Harassment, etc.

For JPM Publishing if they apply these regulations into their company, it becomes their duty to maintain the environment of the organization as it will help them to enhance their reputation in industry. It is very important for them to understand the importance of these laws in organization.

Implications and impacts of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

This regulation can be very useful if JPM Publishing implement this regulation into their system to work effectively as this will assist them to protect their data from breaching or being misused by other. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law which helps in protecting data and privacy for all their worker working with them within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It will also help them to in exporting their personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. This GDPR gives them control to their staff members to protect their personal data to ensure their safety in the work place (A Definition of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), 2017)

By implication of this law in JPM Publishing will help them to enhance their safety measure which can be beneficial for them. This can also aid them in protecting their data from breaching and being misused by others. All the regulations will be beneficial for them if they apply this as it enhance their business and will also help in building a strong relationship and trust with their worker.

SECTION 2

a) Appropriate legal advice based on case law or statutes

CASE 1

Legal advice to Champion Ltd

As per the given case, Champion Ltd. is a London based company. They have given some amount of money to move their business from North London for the development of a new stadium by a premier league club in that place (Kimble, 2012). They suffered a lot of financial crisis after shifting their business due to their decline in customer rate. They have also defaulted on many occasions to honor its payment to bank for their loans taken during that process of moving and to other creditors as well (Hutson, 2017). This has now led them in the worst situation where their creditors are now threatening them for applying in the courts for ‘winding up petition’ against Champion Ltd.

According to the law it is legally correct that creditors can apply for this petition in the court against them for winding up their business. As per this regulation, it is legal that creditors can apply for a winding up petition (WUP) against a company that owns their money. According to this law, if company owes £750 or more than that then the creditor can issue a petition in court against company (Hudson, 2013). This petition will have a hearing date supported on it and then essentially be served at registered office of company. It will then be advertised in The Gazette, after a period (How does the winding up petition process work?, 2018). As per this law creditors can apply for this petition against Champion Ltd. as they have also borrowed money from their creditors and now they are not paying that amount to them. So creditors are legally correct in this case.

To avoid this situation Champion Ltd. can opt for the process of liquidating their business. Company liquidation is a process in which firm ends their business and sells all their assets and convert it into cash to pay the organization's unsecured creditors or it can also be done by lending their business to some other parties who are interested in it. Liquidation process can be initiated either by the owner of the company which is known as voluntary liquidation or by the creditors after acquiring court's permission known as compulsory liquidation process (Company Liquidation Types, 2014).

1. Creditor Voluntary Liquidation (CVL): This is a process which is opted by the owner or director of the business to close his business voluntarily. It can be a great choice if they choose this option as this will help them to get a good debt from their assets. All the  legal action against Champion Ltd. will be stopped if they liquidate their business by choosing this method. It will involve relatively low costs as well for them.

Following are the systematic steps of creditor voluntary liquidation process for Champion Ltd which they can prefer for winding up their business:

• An insolvency practitioner is appointed by the company as their liquidator.
• After this, all the assets of organization are assessed and realized.
• Once their assets are assessed, creditors get their amount.
• After that, all their shareholders will get surplus cash.
• In the final step, organization is finally dissolved and they close their business permanently.

1. Compulsory Liquidation: In this method, a court based process is initiated for liquidating the business. This process starts with applying a petition by the creditors against company to sell all its assets and are realized and distributed to company's creditors to pay their amount taken by them (Compulsory liquidation: a quick guide, 2018). The most common reason in compulsory liquidation process is insolvency and all these processes come under Insolvency Act, 1986 and The Insolvency Rule, 2016.

CASE 2

Legal advice to Amber Ltd.

As per the given case which states that Mr. Anderson was the CFO of Amber Ltd that manages to access all the highly confidential information of the company.  According the case scenario, it is identified that Mr Anderson was an employee of Amber Ltd and at the time of appointment he was entered in to contract of employment. In contract, it was clearly mentioned  that 12 months notice period is required to be served by Anderson before leaving the job.  Further, when Beta Ltd offered him a more attractive role of CFO, acceptance was provided by him  on the terms of employment (Burling, Burling, and Lazarus, 2012).  After acceptance of proposal of employment, Anderson resigned from the job and served 1 month notice period rather than 12 months as specified in previous contract of employment.

Termination of contract is analysed as act occurring when two parties break an agreement which was set between showing relationship that they have either socially or economically means that there was an agreement of provision of services  from parties to  each other and  they have now decided  that they will not perform the contract.  It usually takes place when parties to contract  are released from their legal contractual obligations.  Contract termination take place  in number of ways such as breach of contract, by agreement between parties, performance of contractual obligations, by frustration, inability to perform and fraud.

Present case clearly the situation of breach of employment contract between Amber Ltd and Anderson because terms related to notice period are not fulfilled by party (Cloatre, and Pickersgill, 2014).  Anderson fails to deliver the contractual promises by failing to service notice period completely.

Injunction can be said as remedy that is equitable that the court requires the party to perform something  or other way, to stop party from doing something. As per contract act, parties cannot enter in to new contract of employment before getting discharged from previous contract. This case is related to interlocutory injunction in which one part can make appeal ion court to stop action of other party to be performed.  However, it can be said that Amber Ltd has right to file for Injunction against the action of Mr, Anderson.

B) Alternative legal solution is analysed as a process  in which parties can easily resolve their problems related to terms and conditions of contract. Parties are able to resolve their contract by using different dispute resolution method such as Mediation,  collective bargaining, Arbitration and adjudication (Scherer and Rowe, 2013).  It mainly included neutral evaluation, negotiation , mediation and arbitration. As the court queues increase, rising costs of litigation and time delay, ADR program is introduced.  In this case, it is analysed that Anderson, CFO in Amber Ltd. Was appointed on terms and conditions, that 12 months notice period is required to be served by him before leaving    from the job. 

This clearly defines the situation of breach of contract as party is failed to perform his contractual obligations.  In this case, Mediation  is considered as best possible method for resolution of dispute  rather than by use of judges in courts (Hughes and et.al, 2013).  It is a process that involves intervention of third party as a “Mediator”, to provide suggestion for resolution of contract.  Mediator is responsible to consider the view point of both the parties and then provide possible suggestion for resolving contract.  In present case, dispute between Amber Ltd and Mr. Aderson  on breach of contract can be resolved through  mediation. Parties with mutual discussion can appoint a mediator  which is an independent part such as Solicitor, judge and  officer of labour court etc (Mogaji,  2016). Mediation is important method that helps in resolving issues  related breach of contract  which is occurred between parties in contract of employment.  In this  legal solution, the parties involved in contract depends upon the mediator to provide solution to either terminate the contract or provide suggestion to Anderson to make settlement in the context of employment as major responsibility for organisation. 

After mediation, if parties  cannot reach to any mutual agreement and are not able to resolve disputes then they will get opportunity to resolve dispute  by other methods of alternative dispute resolution (Arnaldi and et.al., 2014). In this method, Arbitration is analysed as important method for resolving dispute as it also involved intervention  of thirds which is appointed to provide its judgement which is mandatory for parties.  In this, alternative legal solution parties involved in employment  contract such as Amber Ltd and Mr, Anderson will appoint  Arbitrator for resolving dispute. 

In addition, there are various legal parties such as solicitor, Barrister, labour officer and other judge of court can also be an Arbitrator which provide his decision  after considering view points of both the parties for resolution of contract.

However, it can be said that these are important alternative disputes resolution method which can  be used by parties for resolution of dispute.  This is effective as it saves the cost of trial for parties and enable them to get resolution within time duration without any legal obligation or restrictions.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it is concluded that business laws are key regulation which parties needs to comply with, while entering in to a contract of employment. Contract is considered as enforceable  when it various elements such as offer, acceptance, consideration and mutual consent of parties.  Breach of contract occurs when any party involved in contract fails to perform its legal obligation. In case of Amber Ltd Vs Mr, Anderson, it was held that organisation has the right to claim injunction against the claimant party  who is responsible for breach of contract.  Further, mediation is also analysed as best legal solution for parties to make settlement of disputes without any legal trial in courts.

REFERENCES

• Arnaldi, S., Ferrari, A., Magaudda, P. and Marin, F. eds., 2014. Responsibility in nanotechnology development. Springer Netherlands.
• Beatty, J. F., Samuelson, S. S. and Abril, P. S., 2018. Essentials of Business Law. Cengage Learning.
• Burling, J., Burling, J.M. and Lazarus, K. eds., 2012. Research handbook on international insurance law and regulation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Clarkson, K., Miller, R. and Cross, F., 2014. Business Law: Texts and Cases. Nelson Education.
• Cloatre, E. and Pickersgill, M. eds., 2014. Knowledge, technology and law. Routledge.
• Glover, W. and Doss, D., 2017. Business law for people in business. Austin, TX: Sentia Publishing.
• Hudson, A., 2013. Securities law. Sweet & Maxwell.
• Hughes, T., Porter, A., Jones, S. and Sheen, J., 2013. Privately funded providers of higher education in the UK.
• Hutson, L. ed., 2017. The Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature, 1500-1700. Oxford University Press.
• Kimble, J., 2012. Writing for dollars, writing to please: The case for plain language in business, government, and law (Vol. 1). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
• Mogaji, E., 2016. Emotional appeals in UK banks’ print advertisement.
• Piper, J., 2018. Updates on tax law and consultations in the UK. Nursing And Residential Care. 20(2). pp.104-106.
• Rothstein, H., 2016. Did we do enough to understand EU conflicts over risk and regulation before Brexit?. Regulation scholarship in crisis?. p.26.
• Scherer, J. and Rowe, D. eds., 2013. Sport, public broadcasting, and cultural citizenship: Signal lost? (Vol. 25). Routledge.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit