Business Law (6e)

• A MAJOR CHANGE! Business Law is now produced as an annual edition. In recent years, the pace and scope of legislative reform of the law affecting business has increased. In an effort to achieve a National Economy, the Parliaments of the Commonwealth, States and Territories are adopting a co-operative, non partisan approach to many matters involving regulation of business – and therefore – the economy.  As a result, there has been a major shift to uniformity across the Nation and a corresponding increase in new legislation and significant amendments to existing legislation. A classic example of this trend is the Trade Practices Act being renamed the Competition and Consumer Act and the associated introduction of the Australian Consumer Law. In order to keep pace with legislative changes, the text will now publish on an annual cycle.

There has been some fine tuning with regard to the Australian Consumer Law in this edition:

• Chapter 25 examines the ever growing importance of electronic transactions.  The chapter incorporates amendments to the Commonwealth legislation in respect to Time of dispatch and receipt of a communication, the addressee and signatures. The other jurisdictions are in the process of introducing similar amendments.
• Chapter 29 examines which business entity is most suited to a particular business. The chapter now includes a reference to the new National Register of Business Names.
  Several additional partnership cases have been included to chapters27 & 28 in response to requests by adopters of the book.
• Chapter 32 looks briefly at the process of debt recovery in the lower courts before examining personal bankruptcy in detail, and liquidation, administration and receivership of companies. It includes a reference to the new Personal Property Security Act 2009 (Cth)
• Chapter 33 begins by looking at the distinction between real property (or realty) and personal property. It includes a reference to the new Personal Property Security Act 2009 (Cth) It also considers interests in land and how ownership and possession may be obtained, as well as the mortgaging and leasing of land.
• Chapter 34 looks at a completely different kind of ‘property’ right called intellectual property, such as patents, designs, copyrights and trade marks.
• Chapter 35 covers aspects of the work environment, including the Fair Work Australia Act 2009 (Cth).
• Chapter 36 examines consumer credit under the new National Credit Code and privacy. It includes a reference to the new Personal Property Security Act 2009 (Cth)

• Fully updated to include changes to the Trade Practices Act as recent as November 2011.
• Additional Australian cases have been used throughout the text and MyLawLab.
• Electronic updates! Amendments to legislation and recent court decisions will be reflected three times a year in digital format. Lecturers will receive these updates through MyLawLab.. This update service will assist lecturers in the currency of the subject offering and save them time sourcing and locating the amendments themselves.
• Deep coverage of key topics to reflect changing needs in student understanding of how the law interfaces and interacts with business. For example, topic coverage has been increased in chapters covering intention to create legal relations and agreement, and the effects of the evolution of the civil liability reforms to the law of negligence. Reforms to industrial law, introduced by the Fair Work Act 2009, are outlined.
• A number of the ‘key’ cases that represent watershed moments in Australian law have been expanded upon to provide students with more information on the background leading up to the decision and the legal principles that flow from the case.
• Many cases contain a ‘Comments’ section after the ‘Decision’ setting out points to note about the case and putting it into a context that will help business students better understand where perhaps a legal principle might have emanated from or how it applies to a particular fact/situation.
• Most case boxes include the court they were decided in at the outset of the ‘Decision’. As the main users of this text are business students, this is to assist them in their understanding of precedent (such as what jurisdiction was the case decided in, what court, where does that fit in terms of their own court hierarchy) and  the importance of the case.
• Standout feature! Case approach. Cases have been integrated into the text. They have been broken up into a number of parts, including the issue and the decision, to try to make them as user friendly as possible. Some cases contain a ‘Comment’ section to clarify a point about the case which did not form part of the decision. Others may contain a ‘Case reflection’ section where the reader is asked to consider (or reflect) whether a different set of facts would produce the same result as that produced in the case they have just read.
• ‘In Brief’ boxes contain an in-chapter summary of key points relevant to the particular area of law under discussion. The end-of-chapter ‘Key Points’ combine these and provide a detailed summary of the main concepts discussed in the chapter.
• Chapter objectives are stated at the beginning of the chapter, and revisited throughout with visual cues. They provide an excellent framework and revision tool.
• ‘Business tip’ boxes are intended to put a particular topic into a business context and show how to avoid or minimise legal problems.
• Website references. There are references throughout the text, as well as at the end of most chapters, guiding students to websites where they will find further information on particular topics.
  ‘Key Terms’ with definitions are highlighted at the beginning of each chapter.
• ’Tutorial questions’ are included at the end of each chapter to encourage discussion and reflection, and ‘Self test questions’ help students understand the key concepts and issues as they arise.
• The use of flow charts and diagrams has been expanded to explain concepts and the relationship of topics to each other.

• How do you keep your brightest students motivated without leaving other students behind?
• How do you locate students who are at risk, early?
• Would you like to save your students time whilst improving their grades?

• Pearson eText with interactive links to cases and legislation.
• The ability for students to highlight and annotate their online text.
• Flashcards for self-study and self-testing
• VidBits! Mini lectures that help students grasp the key concepts. Viewable on any portable player capable of playing video content (e.g. iPod touch), as well as on a computer via iTunes, or any other application capable of playing .m4v format files.
• Eight additional chapters of the text.
• A lecturer grade book that allows you to monitor your students’ progress.