Undergraduate Course: Business Entities (LAWS08134)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Business 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 agency);
(ii) partnerships (general and limited partnerships);
(iii) limited liability partnerships; and
(iv) companies.
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 agency, 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.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | This 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. Visiting students should take Scottish Legal System (LAWS08128) as a co-requisite and must have demonstrable knowledge of contract law before enrolling on this course. Knowledge of a legal system other than Scotland may suffice.
Priority will be given to students studying on exchange within the Law department, and it is highly unlikely that there will be additional spaces for general exchange students & independent study abroad students to enrol; we will look into this on a case-by-case basis in September/January. Visiting students are advised to bear in mind that enrolment in specific courses can never be guaranteed, and you may need to be flexible in finding alternatives in case your preferred courses have no available space. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 300 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
21/09/2026 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Online Activities 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
68 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% in-person exam in Apr/May exam diet.
Semester 1 visiting students will be assessed by a 100% essay at the end of Semester 1.
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Minutes |
|
| Resit Exam Diet (August) | | 15 | | | Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Business Entities Exam | 120 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognise and understand the different types of business entities, and their key characteristics.
- Understand and appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business entity.
- Appreciate the nature and effect of the similarities and differences between the different types of business entity.
- Appreciate the role of business entities in a wider legal, economic and business context.
- 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.
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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) L J Macgregor, L Cary, J Hardman, A D J MacPherson and L Richardson, Commercial Law in Scotland (2024, 7th edn).
Company Law
For company law, the recommended text is:
(i) N Grier, Company Law (2020, 5th edn). |
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, which means 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. |
| Keywords | Business Entities |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jonny Hardman
Tel: (0131 6)50 2374
Email: Jonathan.Hardman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Robyn Blyth
Tel: (01316) 514550
Email: rblyth@ed.ac.uk |
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