2.1 Key themes and learning outcomes The key themes of Part A are: company; business; capital. After studying Part A, you should be able to: describe in general terms what a business is; demonstrate an appreciation of the concept of capital. Â
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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
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
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):
Keep on learning   There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to 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 3.8 Summary of Part B In Part B you learned more about the ECHR and the procedures of the ECtHR and how protocols have been used to ensure that the ECHR remains a living instrument. Part B also explored the new challenges created by the rapid expansion of HCPs at the end of the last century and the proposals for reform of the ECtHR. 3.6 The terms of the European Convention on Human Rights In 1952 the HCPs agreed that the European Convention on Human Rights should be extended to cover additional rights and freedoms. At the time of drafting the original treaty there were heated debates about whether rights relating to property, education and democratic participation were fundamental human rights. As a compromise these were omitted from the original treaty. Their later inclusion was achieved by an instrument known as a protocol, which, although much shorter than the original ECHR 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 3.2 What is the European Convention on Human Rights? In the aftermath of the Second World War there were public disclosures of huge numbers of cases of brutal, inhuman and tyrannical treatment of people, frequently within the civilian populations of occupied countries. Many serious concerns arose about the way in which millions of people had been mistreated at the instigation of or with the connivance or concurrence of government. There was almost universal disgust and condemnation at the disclosures made, together with a general recognition th 3.1 Part B overview The European Convention on Human Rights was introduced in course W100_4 Europe and the law, and through your previous studies you have probably already considered cases (such as that of Diane Pretty) where articles of the European Convention on Human Rights were under debate. Here you will look at its legal implications in more detail. You will consider how the European Convention on Human Rights came into being, why it was considered necessary to create such an instrument, what are it 2.3 What is a ‘business’? The vast majority of companies are, indeed, set up and run with ‘commercial objects’ – in other words, they are business enterprises, or ‘undertakings’, set up to trade and make a profit. It is principally in the context of the company as a form of business organisation (or ‘business medium’) that we will be studying it. So, before we start to look in detail at what companies are, it is a good idea to have a grasp of what companies do, which will lead us on to consider why they 6.2 The supremacy of EU law Whenever there is a conflict between the provisions of EU law and the provisions of the domestic (national) law of a member state, then EU law will prevail. This is a principle which was developed by the ECJ as the relationship between domestic and EU law is not clarified by treaty provisions. This is an important principle, as it ensures the proper functioning of the EU. If an EU member state had the power to annul EU law by adopting new domestic (national) law which was in conflict with the 4.5 The European Parliament The European Parliament fulfils three main functions: it shares the power to legislate it exercises democratic supervision over all EC institutions it shares authority over the EC budget. The legislative and supervisory roles are based on the European Parliament's democratic legitimacy. Its members are directly elected every five years by the citizens of the EU member states. 4.4 The Council of the European Union The Council represents the interests of the individual member states and is seen as the legislative arm of the EU. It is composed of active representatives of the governments of the member states. Usually, these representatives are the departmental or junior ministers responsible for the matters under consideration at a specific Council meeting. This means that the Council itself, unlike the Commission, has no stable membership. Its membership varies depending upon the issues tabled for discu 4.2 The European Council The European Council brings together heads of state and government in order to decide on issues of common interest and overall EU policy and to review progress. In principle the European Council must meet at least twice a year but usually meets four times a year. The meetings are known as Summits. The European Council is the highest level policy-making body of the EU: The European Council shall provide the Union with t 4.1 Overview The institutions of the EU work towards objectives related to the three pillars and the creation of a body of Community law that applies uniformly in all member states. The institutions having legal rule-making powers include the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Commission. Finally, there is the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has the power to settle lega 2.4 The European Court of Human Rights Common law and the court hierarchy, statutory interpretation and judicial precedent are all peculiar to the domestic English law. The European Court of Human Rights operates in a different way. The rights in the European Convention on Human Rights are stated in general terms and are interpreted according to international legal principles. For example, Article 31(1) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states: 2.2 The Convention itself The ECHR is essentially a charter of rights. Any charter of rights represents a consensus, a negotiated agreement between the drafters. Every state intending to adopt a charter will have its own vision and aims, and the drafters have to find a way of accommodating these visions and aims. This often results in the creation of provisions that are a compromise and are drafted in the widest possible terms. The ECHR is drafted in such a way. It is a vaguely worded aspirational charter inten 2.1 History The Council of Europe was set up in 1949. It is an intergovernmental organisation (based in Strasbourg, France) set up to protect human rights, promote cultural diversity and to combat social problems such as intolerance. Its creation was seen as a way of achieving a European approach to the protection of certain individual rights. Although presented now as historical events, the horrors of what had taken place in the Second World War were then fresh in the minds of the governments and
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