BMGT 380 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Plain Meaning Rule, Precedent, American Law Institute

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Business and Management
• Course: BMGT 380
• Professor: Gideon Mark

Document Summary

Business law: chapter 1-the nature of law reading notes. Statutes: laws created by elected representatives in congress or a state legislature. Stated in authoritative form in statute books and codes. Uniform acts: model statutes drafted by private bodies of lawyers and scholars. Don"t become law until a legislature enacts them. Aim for state-to-state uniformit on the subjects they address. Common law: made and carried out by judges as they decide cases not governed by statutes or other types of law. Exists only at state level but federal and state courts involved in applying it. Fills in the gaps where laws don"t exist. Precedents: following decisions of other judges in settling disputes. Restatements: collections of common law that rules covering various areas of the law; are not bound by law and do not bind courts because regulated by the american law institute rather than courts. Equity: accomplished rough justice where common law rules would produce unfair results.