Exploring various legal concepts

Constitutional concepts and concerns

In 1776, 13 colonies of Great Britain declared their independence from said country.  After fighting a long, bloody war to secure their independence, the colonies had to determine how to make decisions for themselves.  There were two overarching concerns when creating this new decision-making system: 1) keeping the colonies united as one country; and 2) preventing any individual and/or group from gaining enough power to control others.  Provide examples of constitutional concepts that address each of these concerns.  For example: in direct response to one of these overarching concerns, the powers created by the U.S. Constitution are expressly divided.  They are divided between the federal government and the individual state governments.  In addition, they are divided across three separate branches within the federal government.  Please be sure fully to explain each of your examples. While the pros and cons of alternative dispute resolution from an individual’s perspective are relatively straight forward, the impact on society frequently is less clear.  Do you think that ADR is beneficial or detrimental to society and why? There are two contrasting views of ethics: Moral Absolutism and Ethical Relativism.  Moral absolutists believe that there is one set of rules that govern mankind, and that these rules should be applied in all cultures and/or circumstances.  Ethical relativists on the other hand believe that a society creates its own definition of ethical (and therefore, acceptable) behavior; culture creates ethics.  Therefore one society’s ethical standards should not be applied to a society with a different cultural background.  What is ethical depends upon the culture and/or circumstances.  Who is correct?  Explain your reasoning. Should the government force you to keep your promises?  If not, then how can we live in a society?  Don’t we need to be able to rely on each other’s promises to survive?  Should the government force you to keep all of your promises?  Are there promises you make that should remain beyond the reach of government?  How can we decide which promises the government should be involved in forcing you to keep, and which promises you should be left on your own to keep (or not keep)? The addition of the UCC creates three separate bodies of contract law in each individual state: codified common law, the UCC as it has been adopted through the legislative process, and court decisions interpreting each.  Why do states retain both the UCC and the common law?  Wouldn’t it be better to choose one or the other? Product liability is a form of strict liability.  All companies in the chain of distribution of a product are jointly and severally liable (any one of them is liable for the full amount of damages), regardless of fault.  Do you think it is fair for one company to be held liable for injuries caused by some other company? Who is liable (the principal or the agent) for a contract formed by an agent depends upon to what extent the agency is disclosed.  The Principal is fully and solely liable for contracts formed by fully-disclosed agents.  However, the agent is fully liable for contracts formed through an undisclosed agency.  Why would the level of disclosure have any impact on the agent’s liability? Although there is no legal limit on the number of partners, most businesses that are organized as a partnership are quite small (have few partners). Why would the legal definition of a partnership have a tendency to limit its size? A corporation is an artificial person.  It is legally recognized as a person, and has some of the same rights and responsibilities as a natural person.  Over the past decade or so, the rights guaranteed to a corporation have been expanded and the responsibilities of a corporation have been decreased.  For example, in Citizens United the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed corporations freedom of speech.  And beginning in 2018, the U.S. Congress lowered the corporate tax rate through the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.  Should corporations have the same rights and responsibilities as natural persons?  Why or why not? The vast majority of laws that affect our everyday lives are rules/regulations created by administrative agencies. Why would laws made by administrative agencies be so much more prolific than statutes?         The concept of ownership is a natural one.  Rights that normally come with ownership include: 1) the right to possess something; 2) the right to exclude others from using that thing; 3) the right to license another’s use of that thing; and 4) the right to transfer ownership of that thing to another person.  These concepts make perfect sense when you apply them to a tangible object like a book.  However, these concepts become ridiculous when you apply them to an idea. The ownership of ideas (intellectual property) is an absolutely artificial construct.  In the United States, we have gone to great lengths to create laws that allow/enforce the ownership of ideas: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.  Why have we gone to so much trouble to create these artificial forms of ownership (what purpose do intellectual property rights serve)?  Do our intellectual property laws serve this intended purpose?  What is sacrificed in an attempt to achieve this purpose? Why is it so difficult to enforce intellectual property rights in China?