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Cover of Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business v3.0
Published: 
October 2024
Page Count: 
604
ISBN (Digital): 
979-8-88794-095-3

Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business

Version 3.0
By Don Mayer, Daniel Warner, George Siedel, and Jethro K. Lieberman

Included Supplements

Key Features

  • Covers the most important topics that are necessary to understand core concepts essential to understanding the regulatory environment
  • Presents information simply without being structured around a specific viewpoint, ideology, or legal philosophy
  • Includes cases in the court’s original language, edited for ease of understanding, along with briefer, summarized cases
  • Additional case summaries are included in the instructor’s manual
  • Cases are used to illustrate points made in the chapter but are not the sole method of teaching the material
  • Includes cases and explanations on the most current Supreme Court decisions to provide a reliable guide to the evolving legal landscape
  • Over 50 embedded streaming video links, most of which are new. These author-curated videos show how legal concepts apply in the real world of business, better engage students, and enrich hybrid and online courses
  • Supportive learning features in each chapter:
    • “Learning Objectives” preview each main head section and help focus the reader’s attention
    • “Exercises” at the end of every main head section prompt critical analysis and invite students to test their own comprehension. Answer guidelines for all Exercises are included in the instructor’s manual
    • “Key Takeaways” at the end of every main head section summarize new information while it is still fresh to encourage retention
    • Embedded flashcards help students master key terminology and autograded online quizzes help them test their knowledge as they learn
    • “Summary” at the end of every chapter reviews key concepts to help students construct a big picture understanding of the preceding chapter
    • “Exercises” and “Self-Test Questions” at the end of every chapter reinforce student learning and encourage retention. Answer guidelines for all Exercises are included in the instructor’s manual, and answers to Self-Test Question are at the ends of chapters
  • Customizable

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Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business is suitable for courses called Business Law, Business Law and the Legal Environment, The Legal Environment, Advanced Business Law or similar titles taught at the undergraduate or master’s levels in business departments at two- and four-year colleges and universities. This book is most appropriate for courses that are one term in length. It can be easily combined with content from the separately published, full-length version to address additional topics.  

Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business covers basic legal and regulatory issues faced by businesses. It includes illustrative cases, using the court’s language for each topic area, for which case summaries are provided in the Instructor’s Manual. This book provides students with the vocabulary and legal acumen required to communicate in an informed way with colleagues, customers, suppliers and government officials on legal matters relating to business. 

New in This Version

Overall

  • Reduced the number of chapters from 15 to 13 by folding coverage of law making into the chapter on the courts and legal process and deleting the previous version’s final chapter
  • Recent changes in both statutory and common law, including landmark cases such as the reversal of Roe v Wade, impacts of new technologies on existing laws, LGBTQ+ employment discrimination, and the Black Lives Matter movement
  • Updated with several new cases decided since 2016, such as Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency and Nebraska v. Biden
  • Cases have been moved to the end of each section in the relevant chapter
  • Cases are fully indexed for the first time
  • Dollar amounts stated in original cases are translated into today’s dollars to reflect their much more compelling current values
  • New and updated exercises throughout

By Chapter


Chapter 1: Introduction to Law and the Legal Process

  • Added discussions of theocratic systems, socialist systems, and the legal environment of democratic capitalism
  • New streaming video links on “Rule of Law,” eco-feminism, representative v. direct democracy, and democratic capitalism

Chapter 2: Introduction to Business Ethics

  • New discussion of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (Section 3.5)
  • New section devoted to “Justice, Democracy, and Business” (Section 2.4)
  • New streaming video links on social contract theory, public goods and negative externalities, how corporations have become so powerful, maximizing shareholder value, luxury gifts to Supreme Court Justices, suicides in Chinese high-tech factories, the U.N.’s work on human rights, and the race to the bottom in global fisheries

Chapter 3:  Constitutional and Administrative Law

  • New sub-section on “The Constitution as Reflecting Traditional American Values” (Section 3.1) that discusses the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision reversing Roe v. Wade and what is defined as fetal personhood” in some states
  • New section on “Administrative Agencies and the Constitution” (Section 3.6)
  • New coverage of the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine and the Chevron doctrine (Section 3.6)
  • New streaming video links on Boeing and the FAA, Lina Khan, and antitrust and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Chapter 4: Introduction to Courts and the Legal Process

  • Expanded discussion of “standing” (Section 4.5)
  • New case brief on Biden v. Nebraska and its implications for the federal system of checks and balances (Section 4.5)
  • New streaming video links on discovery in judicial proceedings and the art of cross examination

Chapter 5: Introduction to International Law

  • New learning objectives on bribery and corruption, the World Trade Organization and its dispute settlement procures, and other global and regional institutions that impact global commerce
  • Reorganized and extended discussion of international customary law, including the Pacquete Habana and Koster v. Automark cases (Section 5.1)
  • New section on the presumption against extra-territoriality, including a reference to a major recent case, Doe v. Nestle, under the Alien Tort Statute (Section 5.2)
  • New introduction to the Bremen case and forum selection clauses (Section 5.2)
  • New section on regional trade organizations (Section 5.3)
  • New streaming video links on the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, and universal jurisdiction

Chapter 6: Tort Law

  • New subsection covers (1) how criminal law and tort law interact, and (2) state-level impacts of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (reversing Roe v. Wade) (Section 6.2)  
  • New case brief on negligence leading to criminal convictions (U.S. v. Hanousek) (Section 6.2)
  • Extended discussion of damages, including the kinds of damages available to plaintiffs in tort cases and a note on constitutional limits to tort damages (BMW v. Gore) (Section 6.3)
  • New case summary of the McDonald’s spilled coffee case (Stella Liebeck v. McDonalds) to illustrate differences between comparative and contributory negligence, including a new link to a streaming video on the topic
  • New streaming video links on intentional infliction of emotional distress and what is a public figure in a defamation claim, using 2012’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and Alex Jones as an example

Chapter 7: Contract Law

  • Expanded Learning Objectives now include how contract law is shaped by public policy and an emphasis on efficiency versus voluntary or consensual agreements in modern contract law (Section 7.1)
  • Updated coverage on liquidated damages (Section 7.4)
  • New subsection on contracts and public policy (Section 7.5)
  • New streaming video links on promissory estoppel, force majeure, equitable remedies in contract law, and the Baby M surrogacy case

Chapter 8: Property Law

  • New subsections on secondary meaning, blurring, and tarnishment (Section 8.6)
  • New subsection on intellectual property and AI (Section 8.6)
  • New streaming videos links to conflicts over water rights in the U.S. West; patents, novelty, and patent trolls; and the New York Times lawsuit against Open AI for copyright infringement

Chapter 9: Agency Law

  • Updated discussion of duties among the parties (Section 9.4)
  • New section on accountability and agency (Section 9.5)
  • New streaming video links on potential federal regulation regarding independent contractors, strategic management, and the Shareholder Value Myth

Chapter 10: Business Organization Law

  • New material on why Delaware is the preferred state to incorporate and Smith v. Van Gorkom (Section 10.3)
  • Expanded discussions of types of corporations, including public benefit corporations (Section 10.3)
  • Expanded discussion of the business judgment rule (Section 10.3)
  • Expanded discussion of corporate mergers and acquisitions, including Revlon, Inc. v MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, Inc. and Dodge v. Ford (Section 10.3)
  • New streaming video links on Elon Musk’s bid to incorporate in Texas and on public benefit corporations

Chapter 11:  Government Regulation: Environmental Law

  • New coverage of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (Section 11.4)
  • New coverage of growth, development and degradation; U.S. political polarization; clean energy; anti-environment riders on Congressional spending bills; the Paris Accords; triple bottom line; and environmental and Social Governance (ESG); fast fashion and the environment (Section 11.5)
  • New streaming video links to services nature provides and negative externalities

Chapter 12: Government Regulation: Employment Law

  • Relocated discussion of Wagenseller v. Scottsdale Memorial Hospital (Section 12.1)
  • New religious discrimination cases discussed: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and Our Lady of Guadelupe School v. Morrisy-Berru (Section 12.3)
  • Updated affirmative action coverage (Section 12.3)

Chapter 13: Government Regulation of the Market

  • Updated section on product liability (Section 13.5)
  • New streaming video links to how the economy is “rigged,” are we in a second Gilded Age, and why the E.U. hates big tech, and what caused the global financial crisis
  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Dedication
  • Preface

    • Chapter 1: Introduction to Law and the Legal Process

  • 1.1 What Is Law?
  • 1.2 Schools of Legal Thought
  • 1.3 Basic Classifications of U.S. Law
  • 1.4 Sources of Law and Their Priority
  • 1.5 Legal and Political Systems of the World
  • 1.6 A Sample Case
  • 1.7 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 2: Introduction to Business Ethics

  • 2.1 What Is Business Ethics?
  • 2.2 Major Ethical Perspectives
  • 2.3  Corporations and Corporate Governance
  • 2.4 Justice, Democracy, and Business
  • 2.5 Business Ethics Globally
  • 2.6 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 3: Constitutional and Administrative Law

  • 3.1 Basic Aspects of the United States Constitution
  • 3.2 The Commerce Clause
  • 3.3 The Dormant Commerce Clause
  • 3.4 Preemption: The Supremacy Clause
  • 3.5 Business and the Bill of Rights
  • 3.6 Administrative Agencies and the Constitution
  • 3.7 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 4: Introduction to Courts and the Legal Process

  • 4.1 State and Federal Court Systems in the United States
  • 4.2 The Issue of Jurisdiction
  • 4.3 Trial Procedure
  • 4.4 Judgment, Appeal, and Execution
  • 4.5 When Can Someone Bring a Lawsuit?
  • 4.6 Relations with Lawyers
  • 4.7 Alternative Means of Resolving Disputes
  • 4.8 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 5: Introduction to International Law

  • 5.1 Sources of International Law
  • 5.2 Important Doctrines in Nation-State Judicial Decisions Affecting International Law
  • 5.3 Regulating Trade
  • 5.4 Organizing for International Business
  • 5.5 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 6: Tort Law

  • 6.1 Purpose of Tort Laws
  • 6.2 Intentional Torts and Criminal Law
  • 6.3 Negligence
  • 6.4 Strict Liability and Product Liability
  • 6.5 Tort Remedies, Limitations on Remedies, and Tort Reform
  • 6.6 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 7: Contract Law

  • 7.1 Introduction to Contract Law
  • 7.2 Contract Formation
  • 7.3 Excuses for Non-Performance
  • 7.4 Remedies
  • 7.5 Contracts, Ethics, and Public Policy
  • 7.6 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 8: Property Law

  • 8.1 Introduction to Property Law
  • 8.2 The Law of Real Property
  • 8.3 Rights and Duties Incident to Possession and Ownership of Real Estate
  • 8.4 The Law of Personal Property
  • 8.5 The Law of Estates and Trusts
  • 8.6 Intellectual Property
  • 8.7 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 9: Agency Law

  • 9.1 Introduction to Agency
  • 9.2 Principal’s Liability for Torts by Agents
  • 9.3 Principal’s Liability for Agent’s Contracts
  • 9.4 Duties among the Parties
  • 9.5 Agency and Accountability
  • 9.6 Termination of the Agency Relationship
  • 9.7 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 10: Business Organization Law

  • 10.1 Sole Proprietorships
  • 10.2 General Partnerships
  • 10.3 Corporations
  • 10.4 Hybrid Business Forms and Limited Partnerships
  • 10.5 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 11: Government Regulation: Environmental Law

  • 11.1 Introduction to Land-Use Regulation and Environmental Law
  • 11.2 Regulation of Land Use
  • 11.3 Growth of the Environmental Movement
  • 11.4 Federal Environmental Laws
  • 11.5 Current Trends in Environmental Law and Regulation
  • 11.6 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 12: Government Regulation: Employment Law

  • 12.1 Employment at Will
  • 12.2 Labor–Management Relations
  • 12.3 Federal Employment Discrimination Laws
  • 12.4 Other Employment-Related Laws
  • 12.5 Summary and Exercises

    • Chapter 13: Government Regulation of the Market

  • 13.1 Why Government Regulation of the Market Is Necessary
  • 13.2 Regulation of the Business-to-Business Relationship: Antitrust
  • 13.3 Regulation of the Business-to-Customer Relationship: Consumer Protection
  • 13.4 Regulation of the Business-to-Customer Relationship: Products Liability
  • 13.5 Regulation of the Bank-to-Customer and Insurance Company-to-Consumer Relationship
  • 13.6 Regulation of Securities
  • 13.7 Summary and Exercises
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    Don Mayer University of Denver

    Don Mayer teaches law, ethics, public policy, and sustainability at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, where he is Professor of the Practice of Business Ethics and Legal Studies. His research focuses on the role of business in creating a more just, sustainable, and productive world. With James O’Toole, Professor Mayer has co-edited and contributed content to Good Business: Exercising Effective and Ethical Leadership (Routledge, 2010). He is also coauthor of International Business Law: Cases and Materials, in its sixth edition with Pearson Publishing Company. He has taught business ethics at St. Mary’s College of California, the University of Michigan, Manchester Global Business School, the University of Iowa, and Oakland University (Michigan). After earning a philosophy degree from Kenyon College and a law degree from Duke University Law School, Professor Mayer served as a Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps officer in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam conflict and went into private practice in North Carolina. In 1985, he earned his LL.M. in international and comparative law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Later that year, he began his academic career at Western Carolina University and proceeded to become a full professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where he taught for many years before moving to the University of Denver. Professor Mayer has won numerous awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, including the Hoeber Award for best article in the American Business Law Journal, the Maurer Award for best article on business ethics (twice), and the Ralph Bunche Award for best article on international business law (three times). His work has been published in many journals and law reviews but most often in American Business Law Journal, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Business Ethics Quarterly.

    Daniel Warner Western Washington University

    Daniel Warner is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Washington, where—following military service—he also attended law school. After some years of civil practice, he joined the faculty at the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University in 1978 where he is now a professor of business legal studies in the Accounting Department. He has published extensively exploring the intersection of popular culture and the law, for which publications he has five times received the College of Business Dean's Research Award for "distinguished contributions in published research." He served eight years on the Whatcom County Council, two years as its Chair. He has served on the Faculty Senate, on various university and college committees including chairman of the University Master Plan Committee; he has been active in state Bar Association committee work and in local politics, where he has served on numerous boards and commissions over 30 years.

    George Siedel University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

    George J. Siedel completed graduate studies at the University of Michigan and Cambridge University. Following graduation from law school, he worked as an attorney in a professional corporation before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan. Professor Siedel has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida. He has also served on several boards of directors and as Associate Dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Professor Siedel was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and Harvard University, a Visiting Scholar at Berkeley, and a Parsons Fellow at the University of Sydney. He has been elected a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University's Wolfson College and a Life Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation. As a Fulbright Scholar in Eastern Europe, he held a Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The author of numerous books and articles, Professor Siedel is the recipient of research awards from the University of Michigan (the Faculty Recognition Award) and the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (the Hoeber Award, the Ralph Bunche Award and the Maurer Award). The Center for International Business Education and Research selected a case written by Professor Siedel for its annual International Case Writing Award. He has also received many teaching awards, including the 2014 Executive Program Professor of the Year Award from a consortium of thirty-six leading universities committed to international education.

    Jethro K. Lieberman New York Law School

    Jethro K. Lieberman is Martin Professor Emeritus at New York Law School, where for many years he served as dean for academic affairs. He taught in law schools for 33 years, at NYLS and at Fordham University School of Law. Before that, he was vice president at what is now the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) in New York. For nearly ten years, he was legal affairs editor of Business Week magazine. He practiced antitrust and trade regulation law at a large Washington law firm and was on active duty as a member of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps during the Vietnam era. He earned his BA in politics and economics from Yale University, his JD from Harvard Law School, and his PhD in political science from Columbia University. He is the author of The Litigious Society (Basic Books), winner of the American Bar Association’s top literary prize, the Silver Gavel. Among his many other books are Liberalism Undressed (Oxford University Press) and A Practical Companion to the Constitution: How the Supreme Court Has Ruled on Issues from Abortion to Zoning(University of California Press). He is a long-time letterpress printer and proprietor of The Press at James Pond, a private press, and owner of the historic Kelmscott-Goudy Press, an Albion handpress that was used to print the Kelmscott Press edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the 1890s. For a complete bibliography, see www.jethrolieberman.com.

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