Merced College's
BUSINESS LAW (BUS-18A)
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
Explain the common law tradition, define precedent and determine when/why a court might depart from it;
Within the Bill of Rights, distinguish those rights guaranteed to natural persons from those guaranteed to legal persons;
Analyze and discuss the conflict between legality and ethics;
Differentiate between various local, state and federal trial and appellate courts;
Examine and apply the procedural steps involved in processing civil and criminal cases;
Compare and contrast the primary methods of alternative dispute resolution and select an appropriate resolution method given a particular scenario;
Compare and contrast intentional torts and unintentional torts;
Identify which category of intellectual property a particular business’s property falls under and select the appropriate method to grant protection to those property rights;
Recognize the elements of a contract and employ these elements to construct a simple business contract;
Distinguish among the various types of bankruptcy relief available to debtors, discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages, and enumerate the typical steps of a bankruptcy proceeding;
Relate the major forms of business organization in the U.S. and discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages;
Differentiate the respective rights and duties of principals to agents from those of agents to principals, and discuss their respective levels of liability to third parties;
Examine the major federal and state (California only) statutes pertaining to employment discrimination, relate the remedies available under the law, and discuss the defenses to claims of employment discrimination;
Describe the nature of real property ownership and the transfer of ownership rights;
Distinguish the respective duties of landlords and tenants concerning the use and maintenance of leased property.
Last updated 11/08/2008