THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Undergraduate Course: Business Entities (LAWS08134)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryBusiness Entities (ordinary) is designed to offer an introduction to business entities in Scotland. The course covers both the general law and statutory law.
Course description The course will look at the following:

(i) agency (including commercial agents);
(ii) partnerships (general and limited partnerships);
(iii) limited liability partnerships; and
(iv) companies (the main vehicle through which business is done).

The course is, essentially, comprised of two parts:
(i) Agency and Partnership law; and
(ii) Company law.

It will involve looking at relevant primary sources (cases and legislation), and secondary sources (textbooks and articles).

The course will not look at corporate insolvency (liquidation, receivership and administration) in the section on Company Law. Corporate insolvency will be dealt with in the Commercial Law (Ordinary) course in semester two, where it will be taught in conjunction with personal insolvency (bankruptcy).

Given common legislation in some areas, e.g. company law and commercial agents, there is a reasonable amount of overlap with English law, as these areas refer to United Kingdom or British legislation. Thus, English case law will frequently be referred to in relation to matters concerning the interpretation of provision of statutes, as well as the general law; this will be particularly so for company law.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: ( Contract and Unjustified Enrichment (LAWS08094) AND Legal Reasoning and Legal System (LAWS08106)) OR ( Contract and Unjustified Enrichment (LAWS08127) AND Scottish Legal System (LAWS08128))
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesThis course is only open to visiting students coming through a direct exchange with the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific Exchange). Exchange students outside of Law and independent study abroad students are not eligible to enrol in this course, with no exceptions. Students must have passed Contract and Unjustified Enrichment (LAWS08127) AND Scottish Legal System (LAWS08128).
Visiting students must be enrolled on the VV1 instance of this course. As the exam is in May, visiting students who are here in semester 1 only must submit an essay in December in place of sitting the exam. Full year visiting students MUST sit the exam in May.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2020/21, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  271
Course Start Semester 1
Course Start Date 21/09/2020
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4, Online Activities 2, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 70 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 100 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Semester 1 visiting students will be assessed by a 100% essay at the end of Semester 1.
Feedback Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)2:00
Resit Exam Diet (August)2:00
Academic year 2020/21, Part-year visiting students only (VV1) Quota:  12
Course Start Semester 1
Course Start Date 21/09/2020
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4, Online Activities 2, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 70 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Semester 1 visiting students will be assessed by a 100% essay at the end of Semester 1.
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Recognise and understand the different types of business entities, and their key characteristics.
  2. Understand and appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business entity.
  3. Appreciate the nature and effect of the similarities and differences between the different types of business entity.
  4. Appreciate the role of business entities in a wider legal, economic and business context.
  5. Demonstrate an ability to use and analyse primary and secondary sources relating to business entities, and to think critically about the law concerning business entities and related issues.
Reading List
Below is a list of recommended textbooks for the different parts of the course.

Agency and Partnership

The recommended text for agency and partnership is:

*(i) F Davidson and LJ Macgregor, Commercial Law in Scotland (2014, 3rd edn).

However, students may also like to use:

I MacNeill (ed), Scots¿ Commercial Law (2014, 2nd edn).

Company Law

For company law, the following texts recommended are:

(i) French, Mayson & Ryan on Company Law (2014/2015, 31st edn) (new edition to be ordered) (a very good student textbook) (new edition forthcoming); or

(ii) PL Davies and S Worthington, Gower and Davies¿ Principles of Modern Company Law (2012, 9th edn) (the leading monograph on company law); or

(iii) N Grier, Company Law (2014, 4th edn) (a Scottish student book on company law ¿ very readable); or

(iv) LS Sealy and S Worthington, Cases and Materials in Company Law (2010, 9th edn) (an excellent cases and materials book¿ as good as a textbook); or

(v) J Birds and AJ Boyle et al, Boyle & Birds¿ Company Law (2014, 9th edn) (a well-respected student text); or

(vi) S Girvan, A Hudson and S Frisby, Charlesworth¿s Company Law (2010,18th edn) (a new team has taken over a much respected student textbook ¿ now a little dated); or

(vii) D Kershaw, Company Law in Context: Text and Materials (2013, 2nd edn); or

(viii) P Davies, An Introduction to Company Law (2010, 2nd edn) (a very good introductory book, which takes more of a philosophical approach to the subject); or

(ix) J Dine and M Koutsias, Company Law (2010, 7th edn); (a good introductory book).

These books deal with the new Companies Act 2006. They will be on Reserve in the Law Library.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Having completed the course, students should be able to exhibit the following skills:
(a) recognise, analyse, address and rank legal arguments and evidence in terms of relevance and importance means of being able to:
(i) identify the legal issues from the information provided to the student;
(ii) identify the relevant legal primary and secondary sources (both hard copy and electronic), which pertain to the issues in hand.
(iii) identify arguments for and against particular propositions.
(iv) assess the merits of these arguments.
(v) apply the law to the relevant issues, and solve legal problems (including legal problems which may involve an element of numeracy, either directly or indirectly).
(vi) provide written and/or oral answers to legal problems .
(vi) manage the volume of legal sources
(b) be able to support arguments by reference to appropriate sources, and appreciate the difference and importance between sources.
(c) apply and analyse knowledge and legal principles learned regarding complex problems, in a creative way, so as to be able to provide arguable, or defensible, solutions to these problems by being able to provide a range of viable options from a set of facts and law.
(d) think in a critical way, and make critical judgements regarding the relative and absolute merits of particular arguments and solutions.
(e) work independently in relation to planning and undertaking tasks in areas of law which the student has studied already.
KeywordsBusiness Entities
Contacts
Course organiserProf Laura MacGregor
Tel: (0131 6)50 2034
Email: L.Macgregor@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Tracy Noden
Tel: (0131 6)50 2053
Email: Tracy.Noden@ed.ac.uk
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