THE ASSIGNMENT
Rose has recently graduated from a Business degree and set up an advertising agency. The following legal problems have arisen for which she needs advice.
a) Rose needs to buy a graphic design desktop computer. She spotted one for sale in the Brighton Argus priced at £1,500. Rose telephoned Saba who confirmed that she will sell it to Rose for £1,500. Rose asked whether Saba would accept £1,000. Saba said she would consider it, but didn’t get back to Rose.
A few weeks later, Rose contacted Saba stating that she would accept the price of £1,500. However Saba has already sold the equipment.
Rose then wins a fantastic opportunity to design the advertising campaign for New York based company Traditional Ways (“TW”) a company which believes in promoting a slower and stress reducing approach to life. On 1 June TW wrote to Rose offering to enter into an agreement with her and the letter arrived on 2 June. On 15 June Rose wrote back to TW to accept, however her letter was delayed and did not arrive until 28 June. On 16 June, TW entered into a contract with another company and wrote to Rose that same day to advise her that they no longer wish to contract with her. Rose received this letter on 18 June.
Advise Rose whether in these circumstances she ever had a valid contract with (a) Saba and (b) Traditional Ways.
b) Rose is delighted to enter a contract with a new client (Zone 1, a manufacturer of computer games) to organise the launch of their latest game. Expecting a frenzy of avid computer game fans desperate to buy the new game, Rose requested a police presence at the launch night at a local gaming store. The police agreed to draft in officers for a price of £95, however they do not think this police presence is needed and consider this a special police service. After launch night, Rose refuses to pay the £95.
In her spare time, Rose writes songs for and has been part of a band which she and three friends formed at school. Now that her songs have become popular the whole band is earning money from their performances. However, the other band members claim that they also made an agreement about sharing her songwriting royalties (royalties meaning payments for usage of the song).
Advise Rose whether:
(a) the police are entitled to demand the £95; and
(b) the other band members can receive a share of the songwriting payments.
c) Zone 1 also entered a contract with Rose to demonstrate their new game at a major exhibition.
During a quick lunch break from the exhibition, Rose went for a walk along the River Thames. She took a deckchair from a pile of chairs (hired out by the Riverside Authority), besides which there was a notice telling people to pay the riverside attendant. She paid the attendant and was handed a ticket which she quickly put in her purse without looking at it. Rose was shocked when the chair collapsed and she hurt her hip. She told the attendant that she would want compensation, however he pointed to a clause on the back of the ticket exempting the Riverside Authority from liability.
Advise Rose:
(a) whether the Riverside authority would be able to rely on the exemption clause.
Rose is keen to take the matter to court:
(b) Outline two advantages and disadvantages of litigation in this context.
Learning Outcomes:
This assignment specifically addresses the following outcomes as set out on the LW272 Business Law module descriptor
• Explain the fundamental legal principles of contract law including formation, and terms of contract, and show an understanding of the importance of contracts to business.
• Describe different legal methods of disputes resolution.
• Identify legal issues and apply legal research skills in their investigation.
• Demonstrate ability to research and analyse legal areas, and apply understanding gained to a factual legal problem.
• Apply and communicate relevant research material to a given situation, and produce logically structured and well balanced reports.
Appendix 1
Referencing your Business Law Coursework.
There are two main ways to give references (we also call it giving citations) in academic work. These are the Harvard system and the London Footnoting system (LFS). Most lawyers prefer the LFS. It tends to disrupt the reader less. For your law coursework you may use either the Harvard system or the LFS (but not a mixture of both). The systems both do the same job but in different ways. Both systems require you to attach a bibliography to your work,
Note that neither footnotes nor your bibliography count in the word limit! So make sure you untick the “Include Footnotes” box when you click word count and keep your bibliography as a separate word document. This means you have more words available for the actual answer.
The London Footnoting system:
Any referencing system has golden rules. This system is designed around the central concepts, ease of use and efficiency. Using LFS means that you give the full publication details once in the footnote area. You record the full publication details in the footnote on the first occasion you refer to a text. Subsequent footnote references to the same text can then be restricted to the author’s name and the number of the footnote where the full details can be found.
The first four footnotes in the example are all being cited for the first time. The full publication or citation details are given. However in footnote 5 and 6 Smith is being cited for the second and third time. On these occasions it is enough to simply refer the reader back to the original footnote. If the page number is different from the original footnote then you must give the new page number.
Where you are using the same source again in the next footnote immediately following then you can simply write “ibid.” this is an abbreviation of the word ibidem and means, ‘in the same place’. It is ONLY used to refer to a work that you have cited immediately above.
Using Word for footnoting is relatively simple as Word will automatically move footnotes around as you shift your text about. So if you cut and paste a paragraph from page 1 to page 2, the footnotes will go with it.
Basic rules on citing cases:
When citing cases, best practice is to give the name of the case, and a citation to the relevant law report. If your work is word-processed the case name should be in italics but the rest of the citation should be in non italicised font. If your work is handwritten (eg as in the case of an exam script) the case name should be underlined.
Phillips v Brooks [1919] 2 KB 242
Phillips v Brooks – this is the case name
[1919] 2 KB 242- this is the citation to the law report (you can find these in the index at the front of the Introduction to Business Law textbook)
If you are writing an assignment the case name will usually be in the body of the assignment, but the case citation should be in the footnote. The case name and the citation should also be cited in the bibliography. In an examination it is acceptable to just cite the case name (with date if you know it).
To avoid repetition in the text of your assignment, once a case name has been fully stated then the case name can be shortened. For example after first referring to Phelps v Hillingdon LBC you may later refer to it as the Phelps case.
Basic rules on citing UK legislation:
The title and the date of the Act should be cited. The Act is not put into italics nor is there a comma between the title of the Act and the date.
When referring to sections or sub-sections of the Act, the words should be abbreviated (unless the word ‘section’ is the first word of the sentence, in which case it should be written out in full). No full stop is placed after the ‘s’ when it is abbreviated.
Examples:
Companies Act 2006, s 3(1)
Bribery Act 2010,s 10
A citation in a footnote is not required when citing legislation if all the information the reader needs about the source is provided in the text.
Authored books
Books should be cited as follows, by way of footnote, with no punctuation used:
Author, Title (edition, publisher year) page.
Example:
Jones, Introduction to Business Law (2nd edn, OUP 2013) 218.
Articles
When referencing an article the author’s name should be given first followed by a comma and then the title of the article, which should be in single quotation marks. The year of publication should then be given (in brackets), followed if necessary by the volume number and then followed by the full name of the periodical, or (as is more likely) the abbreviated version if it is listed in full in the bibliography. The first page number of the article is then given.
Examples:
Treitel, ‘Damages in Respect of Third Party Loss’ (1998) 114 LQR 527.
Palmer and Yates, ‘The Future of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977’ [1981] CLJ 108, 114.
Electronic sources
If you are using websites for your coursework you must cite the source as follows:
Author (if identifiable), title, type of document (if relevant), date of issue (if available), web address and date of access. Example:
Mitchell C, ‘Contracts and Contract Law: Challenging the Distinction Between the ‘Real’ and ‘Paper’ Deal’ https://ojls.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/4/675 accessed 20 November 2013.
Think carefully before you use websites in your work. Some websites can be unreliable and you must make sure that your research trail can be traced by the examiner. If you are in any doubt that the website might disappear over time then print a copy of the relevant part of the site and file it in your course books just in case. Never use websites that have no authority behind them, in law or otherwise. Your work should always retain integrity. Check that you have not used websites which may contain unsubstantiated material eg Wikipedia. If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version. There is no need to cite an electronic source for such a publication.