3.2.1 What is a sole trader? If you were to set up a newsagency business on your own as described in Activity 2, you would be a sole trader. Often this is described as being ‘self-employed’. You would be the ‘owner’ of the business. Whilst other people might be involved in your business (for example, as employees or suppliers), it would nevertheless be your business.
3.2 Forms of business organisation, or ‘business mediums’ If you were to carry on the business described in Activity 2, you would be carrying on business on your own. You would be what is called a ‘sole trader’. We will look at the consequences of being a sole trader in a little bit more detail in this section. However, not all businesses are run by sole traders. There are several different ways in
3.1 Key themes and learning outcomes The key themes of Part B are: business mediums; sole trader; partnership or firm; assets and liabilities. After studying Part B, you should be able to: identify the main types of business medium; demonstrate an understanding of the key characteristics of businesses run as sole traders; demonstrate an understanding of the
2.5 Review of learning outcomes Decide for yourself, by working through the table below, whether you have satisfied the learning outcomes for Part A. 2.4What is ‘capital’? Before we move on to look at the different types of business organisation, we will introduce one more concept. It is the concept of capital. It has, historically, been a very important concept in company law. But it is a concept not limited to company law. The next activity will allow you to reflect on your own ideas of what ‘capital’ means, without you needing to have any prior legal knowledge, or, for that matter, knowledge of any other discipline. 1.4 Law, skills and learning outcomes This course has a number of learning outcomes. In relation to a course of study, a learning outcome is simply something which you should be able to do (and to show that you can do) at the end of studying a particular course. The learning outcomes are concerned with ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of company law, and also ability to demonstrate a range of skills, including use of IT, research and problem-solving. In addition to being listed at the beginning of the cour 9.5 Tables Using a table or just a set of columns can help you to analyse information and ideas. You can vary the number of columns and rows as needed. The following activity provides an opportunity for you to summarise information in a table. 1.2 Law and context The law relating to businesses, which includes company law, is a highly practical subject because of the areas which it covers. You may in fact already have experience of this if you are in business; in addition or alternatively, you may be a shareholder in a company, or have lent money to one. All students and practitioners of these areas of law therefore need to have a good understanding of how they actually work in practice, as well as the commercial, political, economic and social c 1.1 ‘Company law’ Before embarking on this course, it is important to take some time to think about the implications of its title: Company law in context. In particular, what constitutes ‘company law’, and what is the context in which we are thinking about it? At this point, you might like to pause for a moment and contemplate what this phrase means to you. In particular, what do you understand by the concept of a ‘company’? At first, this may seem like a ludicrously straightforward questio Learning outcomes After studying this course, you should be able to: Part A: describe in general terms what a business is demonstrate an appreciation of the concept of capital. Part B: identify the main types of business medium demonstrate an understanding of the key characteristics of businesses run as sole traders determine what are the assets and liabilities of a business using numeracy skil Introduction In this course, we will consider the nature of businesses and the principal forms of business organisation. The themes covered in Part A are company, business and capital; and in Part B, business mediums, sole traders, partnerships or firms, and assets and liabilities. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 1 study in Author(s): Acknowledgements The following material is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this course: Course image: Author(s): References Keep on learning   There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to 4.3 Summary of Part C In Part C you explored the relationship between UK law and human rights. You learnt about the historical approaches taken to rights in the UK, that individuals could do as they please unless there was a law restricting or preventing that conduct. The UK had been a signatory to the ECHR for many years before passing the Human Rights Act. Through activities you explored the debate on incorporation of the ECHR and its perceived effect. 4.2 Effect of the ECHR on English law prior to the Human Rights Act 1998 The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) received the Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and the main provisions were brought into effect on 2 October 2000. However, the UK had by then been a signatory to and had ratified the ECHR for nearly fifty years. What was the effect, if any, of the Convention on UK domestic law? We have already noted the supremacy of Parliament as the main law-making body in the UK. Under English law international treaties do not become part of domestic law unless and until some 3.5 The European Court of Human Rights Section II of the European Convention on Human Rights comprises thirty-three articles, which are all related to the setting up and conduct of proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights. They include, for example, the power to make rules governing how applications are made to the Court, how the Court is conducted, how judges are appointed to the Court and their period of appointment. Each HCP is able to appoint one judge to the European Court of Human Rights. In its original f 3.3 What were the fundamental human rights which required protection? Earlier in this course you explored why certain rights were considered to be basic human rights. These can be described as those rights of individuals or groups relating to human dignity and fundamental freedoms, which require legal protection from adverse interference by the state, where those rights derive from the fact of being human. Such rights can be traced back to two aspects of international law, namely customary international law and treaty law. The former derives from the customs ad 2.1 Treaties, conventions and constitutions International human rights are part of a much wider area, public international law, which in broad terms encompasses law relating to the legal rights, duties and powers of one nation state in relation to its dealings with other nation states. These rights, duties and powers are set out in international treaties or conventions. Such treaties and conventions may be global in their application or restricted to certain regions of the world. Reference to a work on international human rights treati 1 Course overview This course will look at the concept of rights in their broadest sense: a freedom to do or be protected from something; a claim to do or enjoy something; a power to do something which affects others and not to be challenged over that use of power. This concept of rights defines the position of an individual and does not consider collective or majority rights. As you may already know, the subject of rights,
I am confident that I have a sufficiently comprehensive understanding to enable me to move on. I am sufficiently confident in my understanding to enable me to move on, but I am aware that I need to revisit the material later. I
Activity 7: Completing a table
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