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Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business

v2.0 Don Mayer, Daniel Warner, George Siedel, and Jethro K. Lieberman

Chapter 1 Introduction to Law and the Legal Process

Chapter Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

  1. Distinguish different philosophies of law—schools of legal thought—and explain their relevance.

  2. Identify the various aims that a functioning legal system can serve.

  3. Explain how politics, law, and business are related.

  4. Identify the sources of law and which laws have priority over other laws.

  5. Understand some basic differences between the U.S. legal system and other legal systems.

Philosophers have considered issues of justice and law for centuries, and several different approaches, or schools of legal thought, have emerged. In this chapter, we will look at those different meanings and approaches and will consider how social and political dynamics interact with the ideas that animate the various schools of legal thought. We will examine the connections between “the rule of law” and how the rule of law can create a positive, stable environment for business activities. We will also look at typical sources of “positive law” in the United States and how some of those sources have priority over others, and we will set out some basic differences between the U.S. legal system and other legal systems.