BUSINESS LAW 402 Winter Term 2016 Instructor: Jeffrey Bone
Email: [email protected] Phone: 780.492.6859 Office: 1-23C
Office Hours: (by appointment)
Course Website/uLearn: https://ulearn.ualberta.ca/
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is an introduction to some of the specialized contracts and legal regulations that would be encountered in a business setting. It is required that all students have taken Business Law 301 (or its equivalent).
COURSE TEXT
Custom Edition for Business Law 402: Jeff Bone - Mitchell McInnes et al., Managing the Law: The Legal Aspects of Doing Business (Pearson Education Canada).
Lecture slides are posted on uLearn. However, students are not required to print and follow the
PowerPoint slides during class. They have been prepared as an outline of course materials presented in the lectures. The slides are simply a guide. Other relevant course materials may be added on uLearn from time to time.
Mark Allocation (subject to change)
Important Exam Information
The exams will be closed book (you may bring in a foreign language dictionary as long as it is a paper copy - not electronic. The instructor will ask to look through the dictionary during the exam).
The format of these exams will be multiple-choice questions.
You may review exams by making an appointment by email with the instructor. Exams reviews will take place Friday (or potentially Wednesday) afternoons for the two weeks following the release of the grades. Ensure you make your appointment within two weeks.
Midterm 30% Friday February 12,
50 minutes, in class Chapter 14-19; lecture materials
Group Presentation 25% Beginning March 7
Final Exam 35% Location and Date TBA
Group Presentation Participation Marks
10% See below for details
During the exam please have all electronic devices, study materials, textbooks, etc. off your desk.
As well you must put your name and student ID # (not your account number) and the special code on the scantron provided. Failure to do so may result in lost points at the discretion of the
instructor. Failure to hand back the exam promptly upon the instructor declaring that time has elapsed is considered unethical and will result in possible academic sanctions.
There will not be any sample exams/questions provided. Use of older exams as a study aid is prohibited. If you want sample questions ensure you purchase a new textbook that includes a study guide found at: www.pearsonmylab.com. If you experience trouble logging onto the website, ensure you use the exact web address listed above (do not simply search online for:
Pearson MyBusLawLab). With the code provided in a new textbook you may access
mybuslawlabs where multiple-choice sample questions are found in the pre and post-test section.
These multiple-choice questions are similar to the ones you will come across on the exam. You will need the following course ID in order to register:
Course Name: BUSINESS LAW 402 Course ID: bone28194
Grade Distribution
The final grade distribution will reflect the University of Alberta Marking and Grading Guidelines.
F 0 - <50%
D 50 - <55 D+ 55 - <60
C- 60 - <63 C 63 - <67 C+ 67 - <70
B- 70 - <73 B 73 - <77 B+ 77 - <80
A- 80 - <86 A 86 - <93
A+ ≥93
GRADING STRUCTURE - FINAL GRADE IS A PERCENTAGE, AND THE DECIMAL POINTS ARE NOT ROUNDED UP OR DOWN TO A FULL PERCENT FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONVERTING TO LETTER GRADES AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER (E.79.99% IS NOT ROUNDED TO 80%).
Deferred Policy
If the deferral is requested due to illness, the student is to contact the instructor after the exam has been missed by email explaining the circumstances. The student must contact the instructor within a reasonable amount of time. If the deferral is not related to illness, the student may contact the instructor at any time by email or phone to explain the circumstances. The student must complete a Statutory Declaration in the form provided on uLearn. The declaration must contain all of the evidence you wish to rely on in requesting a deferred examination. If the instructor approves the Declaration, he will sign the form as Commissioner at the bottom. If the instructor does not approve the Declaration, the exam will be graded as zero.
Students are expected to write the examinations at the assigned times. If a student does not have a valid reason for missing the midterm, then the student will receive a score of zero on the midterm.
If a student misses the midterm examination due to illness or other valid reason approved by the instructor, the weight of that mid-term will be added to the final exam or an alternate exam will be provided at the discretion of the instructor.
If you must miss the final exam, you can make arrangements to write a deferred final according to
University Policy by contacting the undergraduate office on the second floor of the business
building (Note: the instructor does not have authority to grant deferrals on the final exam).
Plagiarism
The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty.
Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence.
Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University. Policy about course outlines can be found in §23.4(2) of the University Calendar.
University Calendar link:
https://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/calendar/Regulations-and-Information/Academic-Regulation/23.4.ht ml
List of Topics
Course Introduction Materials
1. Negotiable Instruments Textbook (Chp. 14), Lecture 2. Property (real & personal) Textbook (Chp. 15, 16, 17), Lecture 3. Intellectual Property Textbook (Chp. 18), Lecture 4. Electronic Commerce Textbook (Chp. 19), Lecture Midterm (content up to February 10
class materials) February 12, 2014
5. Employment Law/Human Rights Textbook (Chp. 26), Lecture /Privacy Law
6. Employment law/Labor Textbook (Chp. 27), Lecture 7. Government Regulation of Business Textbook (Chp. 25), Lecture GROUP PRESENTATION: Beginning on Monday, March 7, 2016. 25%
Students in groups of 5 (five) will present in class on a topic related to the course material (i.e., a discussion about a relevant legal news event, case, theory, problem, etc). Presentations will be 40-45 minutes, including time for questions from the class.
Once you have chosen a group please contact me by email with your members. After Monday January 25th if groups have not been established, I will automatically assign groups with the remainder of students.
Please note, after January 25th you must work with the group you have been assigned and groups will not be changed.
After January 25th, a list will be put up on uLearn with the date of your group’s presentation. Please note that students must be prepared to present after the reading break. It is inevitably that some groups have to present at this time, so be prepared. I will not consider special requests to present at a later date (only if a group member has a legitimate conflict with the assigned date).
There is no specified format for the presentations, allowing for as much creativity as desired (i.e. - create and post a movie to YouTube, PowerPoint slides, a famous song with new “legal” lyrics, etc).
Presentations will be marked as follows: 25% total for the presentation (20% mark assigned to entire group by myself; 5% group evaluation among the members). My grading will consist of the following equally weighted factors:
-Creativity (Is this a novel topic presented in an interesting manner?) 5%
-Relevance (How related is the topic and presentation to the course material and modern legal issues) 5%
-Knowledge of topic (Did you truly grasp the issue at hand and present it clearly?) 5%
-Research (Did you engage in a research methodology of quality and merit and is that reflected in you presentation?) 5%
Your grade will appear out of 20 without a break down of the individual elements and will be the same for all group members. All marks will be released towards the end of the semester at the same time after all presentations have been completed.
The remaining 5% will be the average of the marks assigned to you by your group members. This is a mark for participation and contribution to the project. Presumably, if everyone equally participates you should assign 5% to all members. If someone has contributed significantly less than the other members, then you may assign a lower grade on this basis. I leave that for you to decide individually. These scores are strictly confidential. There is a form for peer reviews provided on uLearn. I require these forms be completed and submitted to my drop box on the third floor of the business school within 48 hours of your presentation. If not, it is presumed you grant full marks to all members of the group.
Please submit at the beginning of your presentation a hard copy of your final product (i.e. PowerPoint slides, script or a short written summary). In terms of generating ideas for your topic, a good suggestion is to look at the course materials, google legal topics or research Canadian major newspapers. The only criteria is that the topic relates to our course content in some fashion. You may discuss your choice or options with me, but my approval is not specifically required. For legal research once your topic is chosen, you may review the website addresses as provided below.
Website addresses with useful information:
A great website for legal research of cases and legislation is CanLII , a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. CanLII's goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet. Go to http://canlii.ca/en/index.html to check it out.
Alberta court decisions may be found at http://www.albertacourts.ab.ca/
The University of Calgary maintains an excellent site for searching for judgments in a number of different jurisdictions in Canada and other English-speaking countries.
http://library.ucalgary.ca/branches/law
Intellectual Property:
A good site for information about Intellectual Property is the Canadian Government Property Office:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/welcome/welcom-e.html
Land Titles Procedures Manual
Full of information about a multitude of different interests in land and the documents used to register or declare those interests:
http://www.servicealberta.ca/836.cfm
Participation by attending Group Presentations: Beginning on Monday, March 7, 2016. 1% will be assigned for attending the presentations up to a full 10%. You must sign the attendance sheet for each presentation (up to ten) to receive 1%.
