According to a survey given to minors about their rights and laws, we have come to the conclusion that minors need to become more educated on what the law is. So we put together a prezi presentation to do so. Throughout the prezi we educate minors regarding emancipation from several articles and a video, being arrested and prosecuted along with juvenile detention centers also from articles and a video.We also got plenty of information on the basics of minor law. In the prezi there is also information from an interview with a child advocate lawyer. For the best view of our presentaion click on more and then full screen!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Students Need to Know: Copyright Laws
After questioning students around our high school on crucial information regarding copyright laws, it was quickly evident that students are not as informed as they should be. We took it upon ourselves to make a video meant to educate students on pertinent information so that they can avoid copyright infringement.
Contract Law Manual
Welcome to the Contract Law section of the Spartans Mean Business blog. The fact that you’re on this page leads us to believe that you wish to learn about contracts... either that, or you’re trying to get out of a bad Real Estate predicament. With any sort of field that involves experience, what one needs is not a shallow memorization of the jargon and rules that comes in the package, instead, one needs to fully understand the inner workings (especially if they wish to beat the system). While we cannot guarantee that we will give you a full understanding, this manual will hopefully provide you with the bare essentials necessary to start.
I. What is a Contract?
From the Dictionary
con·tract [kon-trakt]
noun
1. An agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of something specified.
2. An agreement enforceable by law.
3. The written form of such an agreement.
4. The division of law dealing with contracts.
Contracts are not only essential trademarks of business, they are the main means by which people can guarantee results from their transactions. In essence, a contract is a written agreement between two parties (which can range from corporations to entire countries) that sets the guidelines and expectations of both involved. The principle of framing the contract is based on mutual benefits; both parties are attempting to benefit as much as possible from each other, while keeping costs to a minimum and satisfying everyone involved.
When it comes to actual contract-building, however, not everyone is as cooperative as they should be. The key word when making a contract is “benefit”, and human nature dictates that if you can rip someone off scott-free, you’re probably going to go through with it. Luckily for you, you don’t have to feel bad about it because the other side is probably trying to do the same thing. That is why, for the sake of diplomacy, it is important to understand the inner-workings of contracts and contract law. By gaining mastery and confidence in your contract building, you can avoid loopholes, ambiguities, and misinterpretations and, as a result, fully trust your fellow party while working out the kinks that might threaten your deal.
II. The “How to”
A typical contract follows a general format. Though wordings can come in many different flavors, how a person chooses to spice up their agreement is usually up to personal taste (though it’s always good to be careful with your wordings to avoid misinterpretation). What’s more important to understand is what needs to be included, content-wise, in the contract.
Some helpful tips
1. Contracts usually start out by naming the people, businesses, entities, and etc. involved. The contract itself must first be legal, meaning that all parties involved must have the capacity to sign legally and provide what they state they will.
2. Usually, the intro will also describe what each person does (their job and what business he or she is in) and the services, employment, or products being offered.
3. A contract will then lay out (in painstaking detail) the conditions of the agreement, including things such as how much both sides will be paid, how high the quality of the work will be, how long the contracting period will last, or how copyright or licensing rights will be distributed, among a number of other potential topics.
4. A part of the contract must be devoted to “representations and warrants”. In the “representations” part, the parties involved must certify that they represent their company, person, organization, etc. as well as what they are offering and their terms. With the “warrants” the parties guarantee that they will live up to the terms set in the contract.
5. Contracts must have provisions in the case that the product or service offered does not meet expectations. The rights to set off specifies what the affected party can do and what they will receive. A good contract will also have provisions in the case of Force Majeure, or happenings out of human control such as war or natural disasters.
6. Jurisdiction and bylaws. Essentially, if a dispute between the two parties is taken to court, this section of the contract will specify which state’s laws will apply and how the dispute will be resolved (Most contracts will resolve disputes via arbitration).
7. Finally, the two parties must sign the contract, finalizing the deal and legally binding them to their commitment.
III. Wordings, Loopholes, and Disputes
Though contracts have proven themselves to be more useful than not, despite the restrictiveness and painful formality, one of the aspects that continually proves to be the most irritating is wording. As clearly demonstrated by Michael Bloomberg, even the smallest wording mistakes could potentially be used as loopholes.
Ideally, a well written contract should not have any loopholes. As human efficiency would have it, most contracts are not. Grammatical errors in a contract could potentially be debilitating if the opposing side discovers them, however if one of the parties is too egregious or aggressive in pressing the issue of a minor error, chances are the judge will intervene to prevent the breaking of contract. Additionally, most contracts will have a provision at the end that exonerates simple faults.
There are two cases in which a fault can be enforceable. First of all, if an incorrect legal terms is used, be it in the wrong context or with the incorrect definition in mind, a misinterpretation can be pressed. For a glossary of legal terms, click here.
The place where most contracts are broken is under the “representations and warranties” section. If one of the parties does not follow through with their guarantees, the contract can be dissolved and the opposing side can pursue the breaking party for damages.
Some useful tips
IV. Real-Life Examples
Contracts are pretty much everywhere; any legitimate, enforceable interaction will probably use a contract whether it is written, implied, unilateral (one-way promise), bilateral (mutual benefit), or forced by law. Do you own a cell phone? Then you are under contract. Even small, everyday could be considered contracts in a way. If someone posts a reward for a missing object, they are obligated by a sort of implied contract to pay the person who finds their object.
Having trouble starting your contract? Never seen one before? Here are some different categories of contracts for you to look at to help you get started:
- Real Estate Agreements
- Leasing, Rentals, or Tenancy Certification
- Employment Agreements
- Credit Collection
- Loaning and Debt
- Sale (merchandise or services)
- Cohabitation, Marriage, and Divorce
- Wills
- Arbitration Agreements
- Non-Competition Agreements
- Affidavits
- Permission for Use of Copyright
Sports Law & Lockouts
Sports have played an essential role in many humans' every day lives. Players have often been looked up to as heros, those who are so talented that they get payed to show off their talents for us viewers. In past years, sports have been having legal issues that could have ruined the passion behind the games if not for sports law. In the following presentation, three different lockout cases: the NBA, NHL and NFL.
International Business Law
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| (Images: "Abbott Labs." Bloomberg Business Week. 2008. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. |
Below we looked into an important international law court case, to apply how international law and contract law come into play. This case is overseen by the one of The United Nations principle organ (branch) known as The International Court of Justice. Interestingly enough, The International Court of Justice is the only branch of the United Nations that is not held in New York City. I question the intentions of the members of the United Nations in having every operation held in NYC except for the justice court which is held in the Netherlands. I personally did not realize the importance in having the justice courts far away from the entire operations of the United Nations until I discovered through research that the court’s judges should not be impacted in any way by outside impacts in making their court case decisions. In order to read more into the recent and important court cases looks at the case law section.
The other important aspect of international business law lead us to focus our attention on was the highly debatable topic of outsourcing. In that section, you can find a intellectual argument against outsourcing and what the United States needs to begin doing in order for us to regain our worldly power in business over the vastly expanding countries like China.
International - Case Law
In an oil mining town of Tyumen, Russia a judge rejected two lawsuits brought by Andrew Prokhorov, a minority shareholder in Russia’s third largest oil firm. One lawsuit for 13 billion aimed at BP and the other for 2.8 billion against two BP nominees on the board of operation unit TNK-BP Holding. Mr. Prokhorov has said that TNK-BP suffered financial losses because it had been excluded from a planned alliance between Rosneft and BP.Mr. Prokhorov is planning to appeal this decision saying that he was only given an approximate two hours to state his case and therefore, not enough time to present all the evidence. While BP on the other hand stays firm behind its victory saying that the grounds for the lawsuit were not proven in court.This all started with a misunderstanding between TNK-BP and BP when BP signed a contract with a Russian oil company Rosneft. The contract determined the two companies would search the Kara Sea together for oil. TNK-BP says that BP violated an exclusivity clause where TNK-BP would get th
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| (Image: "BP Opens Arctic Rosneft Too TNK-BP." Mining News and Journal. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. |
Outsourcing
Since the economic recession began in October of 2009, the international economy has been in shambles. Unemployment rates are similar in numbers to the Great Depression. Furthermore, domestic corporations are moving their factories to developing countries overseas because of the opportunity to give people jobs for lower salaries. In addition, they are still able to make their products without the major taxes that they must pay to make them in United States. However, they may be sacrificing the quality of the product that is being made overseas. Some people argue that outsourcing helps to spread out jobs to developing countries, which would contribute to healthier world economy. However, I believe that outsourcing hurts the world economy more than it helps it. Mr. Peter Witty, an expert in international law, stated that, “In a simplistic way, outsourcing current manufacturing jobs obviously hurts those people who lose their jobs as a result, and their inability to spend as much money during unemployment as they would during their employment hurts the larger economy.” This clearly indicates that the economy cannot afford to make this big of a sacrifice for a long term solution to the recession. Outsourcing jobs forces American consumers to deal with terrible customer service, lead-infused toys for their children, and less jobs for them to choose from. If jobs were to be brought back to the United States, the quality of products would go up dramatically because the United States has strict regulations on how products are made; ensuring dangerous materials don’t get into the clothes, toys and electronics that use. Also, jobs would be created instantly from bringing big corporations jobs back to our shores. In my opinion, the world economy would benefit from the United States’ success because our economy has ties all over the world, if the United States finally carried itself out of the red, then the rest of the world would soon follow. Lastly, I believe that outsourcing is not beneficial to the United States economy because it gives corporations an excuse to leave the country. In this day in age, most corporations are looking for tax breaks/tax incentives to stay in the United States. However, the government has to deal with the old children’s moral, once one gets it everyone will want that same thing. So instead of providing these tax breaks to the greedy corporations, the government is telling them to take their business elsewhere. Clearly, the government doesn’t care where the corporations make their products, as long as the corporations continue to rake in the billions of dollars. All in all, outsourcing jobs is commonly thought to help the world economy because it is stretched the American successes to other developing countries. However, outsourcing has proven to be toxic to the economy because it promotes “quantity is better than quality” logic, which has too many loopholes to work for a long time. To clarify, the supply of the products being made may be plentiful, but if the products are not made well, then the demand will continue to decrease. Consequently, there will be a major surplus on the products being made overseas, forcing the many huge corporations to go back to the drawing board. In the long run, outsourcing jobs is harming our world economy more than it is helping us.
Works Cited:
Mariner, Joanne. "UNITED STATES v. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP :: 517 U.S. 843 :: 1996." US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .
"Ethics - Guide to the Practice of Law." Lawyers, Attorneys, Law Firms – Find Legal Information. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.
Criminal Law
In a world of immense complexities, it is sometimes easy to believe that ignorance is bliss. If the news is too dreary one day, we watch sports instead; if the weather is treacherous, we stay bundled up inside and watch a movie; and if our workloads become too overbearing, most of us seem to try and avoid them at all costs. However, while there are some aspects of life that one can avoid so as to escape added stresses and pain, there are also some aspects that one just cannot and should not push off to the side. One of these is the understanding of the processes of the United States legal system. While many of us may believe we would know how to handle ourselves if something terrible was to occur in our lives concerning the law, there is still is a big difference between believing we would know what to do and knowing that we would be adequately informed of what to do. This Prezi was created for the purpose of explaining some of the complexities of the processes of the legal system, from arrest to appeal, in a way that is easy to understand for the majority of our student peers. After viewing this Prezi, it is hoped that others may be informed, in case they are one day implicated in a situation regarding the criminal justice system.
By: John R., Nirali S., and Matt S.
Laws, Acts, and Committees within Finance
Finance is often defined simply as the management of money or funds management. Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the marketing and management of cash through a variety of accounts, instruments, and markets. This is created for transacting and trading assets, liabilities, and risks. Finance is structured and regulated by a complex system of power relations within political economies across state and global markets. Networks of financial businesses exist to create, negotiate, market, and trade in evermore-complex financial products and services for their own as well as their clients’ accounts. Financial performance measures the efficiency and profitability of investments, the safety of claims against assets, and the likelihood that investors are safe against a variety of market risks. With all these complicated ways for money to be shared, everyone wants a profit. There are so many ways to try to make a profit that there are laws created to protect people from felonies who want all the money for themselves. After this Prezi presentation, you will know how to protect your money and will be ready to go out into the world and make some money!
* To view this presentation, click more and then open full screen.
By: Christy S., Ethan S., and Tyler D.* To view this presentation, click more and then open full screen.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Starting a Business
Starting a business is something that many Americans struggle with as small businesses are the lifeblood that makes our country so wonderful. Oftentimes, people see their businesses fail quickly because they don't take the time to think about the necessary precautions to take and run into problems later that could've been anticipated at startup. Our presentation highlights the importance of key aspects to starting a business, including but not limited to the tools needed, resources available, necessary legal action, differences in the types of business you initiate, target markets, and more. Because starting a business doesn't necessarily require an education, we feel that this presentation can help bring much necessary information to the attention of anyone and everyone. You don't need to have a fancy degree to be successful in the business world, you just need to be dedicated, creative, and intuitive.
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