Business Law

Welcome to Business Law (BUS-10) Online at Chabot College for Fall 2006! In this syllabus, you will find a course overview, your class calendar--including assignments and key dates, the course grading structure, and information about your textbook.

Businesses operate within a clear but quite complex legal environment. To become an effective business leader or small business owner, you need to understand that environment. In this course, you'll be introduced to the important concepts of torts, contracts, agency, business structures, and much more. You'll develop legal research and reasoning skills, and a solid appreciation for the benefits and constraints of our legal system.

You'll learn the basics of court and trial procedure. You'll also learn how to minimize your business' legal risks, and how to maximize your legal protections.

You'll learn all of this by studying case law, by analyzing cases and preparing legal plans, by debating legal issues with your classmates. We'll compare the legal system as popularized by movies and television to the real legal system you'll encounter as a business leader. We'll look at the "law in the news", and see how the topics we're studying are impacting real businesspeople in real businesses today.

This course is entirely online. You do not need to come to campus. The class is, however, very interactive. You'll engage in discussions with your classmates each week, and you'll have assignments due to your instructor every week. This will be a fast-paced, intensive, interesting class. You've made a good decision to focus on building your knowledge of business law. Let's make that happen, and have some fun while we're at it!

I am always in my office during office hours, and you can call me there if stopping by is inconvenient. I'm also there many other times, and you can always reach me by cell phone. I check my email often, and this is the best way to reach me. Also, remember to check this course website often for course materials and news.

You may also earn up to 30 extra credit points. Your first opportunity for extra credit is to attend an online learning orientation at Chabot during the first week of class. Or, if you've successfully completed an online course at Chabot within the past two years, you can earn these points just by sending me an email with information about that course: course number, instructor, semester, and your final grade. You can earn 3 extra credit points for helping a classmate on the "Technology Help" or "Law Help" discussion boards (to a maximum of 6 points). And, if you read each week's lecture notes very carefully, you will find six additional extra credit opportunities worth 3 points each! You can also earn 5 extra credit points for working with 1-2 of your classmates to submit a team legal research project (vs. an individual project). You can earn a maximum of 30 extra credit points throughout the semester.

Course Text: West’s Business Law with Online Legal Research Guide, 10th Edition, by Clarkson, Miller, Jentz & Cross, Thomson/South-Western, 2006, Custom Edition for Chabot only, ISBN 0324386796. This custom version contains only the chapters we cover in this course. It is far less expensive and lighter weight than a new copy of the standard edition, but can only be purchased and resold at the Chabot bookstore. You can also use the standard edition, which includes 22 additional chapters that we don't study in this course (the ISBN for the standard version is 0324303904).

Strongly Recommended: A college-level dictionary.

System Requirements: Internet access via a web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later is recommended), 350 MHz Intel Pentium II or equivalent PC, 64MB or more of RAM (128MB on Windows XP), 1 G of free disk space, 56Kbps or better modem, Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later, or XP. Java and cookies must be enabled. If using a Mac, you'll need Mac OS 9 or OS X, 64MB of RAM, Virtual Memory turned on (set to 128), G3 233 or faster PowerPC, 56Kbps or better Internet connection. Note to AOL users: You must minimize the AOL browser and use Internet Explorer or Netscape to work with Blackboard.

If you are a disabled student and need special accommodations this semester, please let me know.

Teamwork is encouraged in this course, but cheating and plagiarism won't be tolerated. Unless otherwise directed, your work should be original and the product of your OWN hard work and intellect. Please refer to the handout on academic integrity for more information. If cheating or plagiarism is detected on any quiz, exam, or other assignment, you will, at minimum, receive a zero on that assignment. Note that Blackboard has tools that make it fairly easy to detect cheating.

This syllabus is subject to change throughout the semester. Any changes will be announced on the course website, and the syllabus posted on the website will always be the most current version.

WEEK	DATE	TOPICS	ASSIGNMENTS
1	8/21-27	Course Overview	Discussion Board posting: self-introduction Submit syllabus quiz Send phone number and mailing address email to Jan Submit survey Submit course goals memo
2	8/28-9/3	Introduction to the Law and the Courts	Read Chapters 1 and 2 Discussion Board posting: Federal vs. state court systems Submit quiz: Chapters 1 and 2
3	9/4-10	Court Procedures Ethics	Read Chapters 3 and 5 Discussion Board posting: Ethical dilemmas Submit Movie Review
4	9/11-17	Intentional Torts Negligence and Strict Liability	Read Chapters 6 and 7 Discussion Board posting: Business negligence risks Submit quiz: Chapters 6 and 7
5	9/18-24	Product Liability Intellectual Property	Read Chapter 8 and supplemental reading in week's folder Discussion Board posting: Intellectual property opportunities Submit chapter questions 8-1, 8-3, 8-6 (pp. 174-175)
6	9/25-10/1	Introduction to Contracts Agreement	Read Chapters 10 and 11 Discussion Board posting: Personal contract experience Submit quiz: Chapters 10 and 11
7	10/2-8	Consideration Capacity and Legality	Read Chapters 12 and 13 Discussion Board posting: Fairness of age, intoxication as contractual capacity exceptions Submit interim course evaluation
8	10/9-15	Genuineness of Assent Statute of Frauds	Read Chapters 14 and 15 Discussion Board posting: Chabot To Go Case study Submit chapter questions 14-3, 14-8 (pg. 291), 15-4, 15-10 (pp. 306-08).
9	10/16-22	Third Party Rights, Performance & Discharge	Read Chapters 16 and 17 Discussion Board posting: Advantages & disadvantages of written contracts Submit progress report
10	10/23-29	Breach of Contract Remedies	Read Chapter 18 Discussion Board posting: Analyzing a real contract Submit quiz: Chapters 16-18
11	10/30-11/5	Exam #1	Discussion Board posting: Share a legal "case in the news" Submit Exam #1: Chapters 1-3, 5-8, 10-18
12	11/6-12	Agency Law	Read Chapters 31 and 32 Discussion Board posting: Law and the Latin language Submit quiz: Chapters 31 and 32
13	11/13-19	Employment Law	Read Chapters 33 and 34 Discussion Board posting: Business employment law risks Submit legal research project
14	11/20-26	Business Organization Overview Sole Proprietorships Partnerships and LLPs	Read Chapters 35 and 36 Discussion Board posting: Share a new business idea
15	11/27-12/3	Corporations	Read Chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41 Discussion Board posting: Fairness of limited liability for corporate executives Submit chapter questions 38-4 (pg. 783), 39-6 (pg. 804), 40-8 (pg. 820)
16	12/4-10	Limited Liability Companies Small Business Law	Read Chapters 37 and 42 Discussion Board posting: Identify the best business organization for your new business idea Submit quiz: Chapters 37 and 42
17	12/11-17	Exam #2	Discussion Board posting: Share a legal "case in the news" Submit Exam #2: Chapters 31-42
18	12/18-22	International Law Course Wrap-Up	Read Chapter 52 Submit quiz: Chapter 52 Submit Final Course Evaluation

First week syllabus quiz.	20 points
Class participation via the Discussion Board: 17 postings. A posting consists of your original comment and a response to at least two of your classmates' comments. 17 @ 10 points each.	170 points
Quizzes: 7 @ 40 points each. Lowest quiz or chapter question score will be dropped.	240 points
Chapter questions: 3 sets @ 40 points each.	120 points
Assignments: Course goals memo: 25 points Progress report: 25 points Movie review: 40 points Legal research project: 60 points	150 points
Exams: 2 @ 150 points.	300 points
TOTAL	1000 POINTS