Contracts Business Law Essay Example for Free

Contracts Business Law Essay Contracts are often viewed as unnecessary in the eyes of the public. Most people think that they live their lives doing what they want, when they want with little regard for contractual law. In reality, contracts bind the decisions that most people make on a regular basis. By writing this article I will demonstrate the usefulness of contracts and how they relate to everyday life. I also intend to provide a reasonable idea of what would happen if we did not have contracts guiding decisions made. Because without contracts, the law would not know who to rule in favor of should the need arise, which happens on a daily basis all around the world. The basic definition of a contract is an agreement between two or more parties. This definition encompasses a great many things. If you take a look at the life of an average consumer, from the beginning of their day to the end of it, they make decisions based on factors that have been put in place by contracts. Our consumer wakes up in his home, which was bought from K. Hovnanian, a company that is well known for the designing homes and making people’s dream homes come to life. That house was built by contractors. By definition a contractor is a person or firm who contracts to build things. Electricians, carpenters, stonemasons, plumbers, home audio technicians, Sheet-rockers, painters, and floor specialists are all examples of contractors that were involved in making the consumers dream home come to life. However, K. Hovnanian does not have a contract with each of these types of contractors. Instead, they have a contract with a general contractor, who has agreed to hire each of the other types of contractors to complete the work necessary to make the house come to life. Our consumer works out a deal with K. Hovnanian for a certain price, which becomes the binding contract that K.  Hovnanian agrees to build the house for. The trademarks that K. Hovnanian uses to define who they are, is bound to them by a trademark agreement with the United States. According to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell University, A trademark is defined as â€Å"Any word, name, symbol, or design, or any combination thereof, used in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from those of another and to indicate the source of the goods. † By registering this trademark our consumer is able to safely say that it is K. Hovnanian they are dealing and not someone who is pretending to be them. Once the home is completed then, the consumer would then bring in a third party, to the agreement: Bank of America. Bank of America has entered into an agreement with our consumer to pay K. Hovnanian for the home built. In turn, the consumer must pay back Bank of America over the next twenty years at a fixed interest rate the amount of money borrowed. This becomes a mortgage contract. According to the Legal information institute at Cornell University, â€Å"A mortgage contract, involves the transfer of an interest in land as security for a loan or other obligation. this is the most common method of financing real estate transactions. The mortgagor in this case K. Hovnanian is the party transferring the interest in land. The mortgagee, Bank of America, is the providing the loan given in exchange security. â€Å"Normally, a mortgage is paid in installments that include both interest and a payment on the principle amount that was borrowed. † Now that our consumer has bought his home and is moving in, a decision is made to buy items for the home that will be necessary for the consumer to live comfortably. Our consumer goes to Kmart and uses their Visa credit card to pay for a number of items such made by brand name companies such as Martha Stewart Living or Craftsman, the bill of sale, otherwise known as the receipt, is an agreement to pay the store for the amount of goods purchased. However, that is only the basics of the idea. The long process of agreements that we do not see and probably do not think about is there is a contract for every minor detail, allowing this transaction to happen. The consumer uses their Visa to purchase these goods up to a pre-determined dollar amount. Therefore, a request was made by the consumer to purchase the merchandise being sold by Kmart using Visa and, in turn an agreement was made with Visa to pay back in due time the amount for the goods purchased, plus interest of course. In turn, Kmart has agreed to honor Visa as per their contract with Visa. They worked out an agreement before hand to accept Visa, which would increase their sales and Visa would be allowed to keep a small percentage of the sale for the ability to use their services. However, to use the services provided by Visa, Kmart must have an agreement with a company that allows them to go beyond their store via electronic communications. The use of services through a company such as Verizon would be necessary. Verizon provides high speed internet as well as telephone services to companies like Kmart to allow them to access outside of the walls of the business. Therefore, Kmart enters into a binding contract with Verizon, for a pre-determined amount of time and a pre-determined amount of money allowing Kmart to use the services Verizon provides. Now that Kmart has the means to reach the outside world, they must purchase equipment, such as MagTek equipment, that would allow Kmart to use the Visa card allowing consumers to make a purchase on credit for goods that Kmart Provides. According to MagTek’s Website, â€Å"MagTek is a manufacturer of electronic devices and systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, checks, PINs and other identification documents. † Among the electronic devices, is a magnetic strip reader allowing consumers to use Visa credit cards to make purchases. Kmart also has an agreement with Omnimedia, the owning entity of the Martha Stewart living products, and Craftsman, a company that makes tools for everyday use. This type of agreement is known an exclusive dealing arrangement. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University, â€Å"Exclusive dealing arrangements are, essentially, requirement contracts in which a seller agrees to sell all or a substantial portion of its products or services to a particular buyer, or when a buyer similarly agrees to purchase all or a portion of its requirements of a product or service from a particular seller. This means that Kmart buys all of its tools from craftsman or all of its household items from Omnimedia. The reverse to this, is that Craftsman or Omnimedia may have an exclusive dealing arrangement in which they agree not to sell their products to competing companies or franchises. As you can see, there is much more going on in behind the curtains of a typical day, so that the consumer is able to live their life. These are only a handful of examples of what parts of our lives contracts have an impact on. There are many more out there. The opposite of having a life filled with contracts, is having one without them, which would likely be a life filled with chaos. Imagine the same scenario in the last few pages, but without contracts binding the many parties involved. Our consumer would set out to buy a home which they decide to do business with K. Hovnanian. On a handshake and a smile K. Hovnanian agrees to build the home, but changes things that the consumer specifically said he wanted to alter the price of the home. After a couple of weeks K.  Hovnanian contacts our consumer to let them know that they were able to secure the land, but the price will be higher. Reluctantly, the consumer agrees, after all this is a dream home that is being built. Another two weeks goes by, and K Hovnanian calls and says construction is right on schedule and that the house will be completed within the next couple of weeks. K Hovnanian and our consumer come to an agreement of money and the consumer has his bank give the money to K. Hovnanian as agreed. After a couple of Months of communication silence, the consumer gets agitated and goes to the lot where his house was being built. There is no house and no construction crew. He goes to the location where K. Hovnanian was only to find out they have closed their doors and left. After contacting some sources to find out the whereabouts of K. Hovnanian, the consumer finds out that the company he has been dealing with was not K. Hovnanian at all, just someone taking advantage of people using the K. Hovnanian name to get money for free. The one contract in all of this that our consumer did setup was with Bank of America for his Mortgage, which is now legally binding. The consumer cannot pay the mortgage and therefore his credit gets destroyed because of a failure to pay and a foreclosure on a home he never saw, which makes it so he never had a Visa card to pay for the purchases from Kmart. Because there was no contract, there was no crime. The company doing business as K. Hovnanian was not wrong because there is no copyright or trademark contract protecting the K. Hovnanian name. The consumer gave them money even though nothing had been in writing and no formal contract was made. In the end, this consumer was taken advantage of because contracts for the situation did not exist. The United States has placed many laws to protect the rights of companies and the trademark they possess. â€Å"Section 1127 Construction and definitions; intent of chapter,† is the chapter in US Code that defines the parameters in which a company may define or lose definition of their trademark. In turn, â€Å"The Lanham Act† protects the owner of a federally registered trademark from anyone not authorized, to use it (http://www. gpoaccess. gov/uscode/). Also under United States Code under section 1454, is the protection of consumer’s rights when making purchases of land by obtaining a mortgage. These rights are put in place to protect the Bank issuing the mortgage, as well as, the consumer. All in all, Contracts are a part of our everyday lives whether we want it to be or not. They may not always be seen nor the effects of it so obvious, but they are there, and their purpose is to protect all parties involved from entering an agreement without understanding and respecting the rights of the other parties of the contract.

Metaphysical Premises And Types Of Liberal Ideology: Liberalism As The End And Liberalism As The Way :: Politics

Metaphysical Premises And Types Of Liberal Ideology: Liberalism As The End And Liberalism As The Way ABSTRACT: The problem of choosing the way for our country unavoidably brings us to a discussion of the problem of liberalism. At first glance, this should not be a problem since liberal principles underlie Western society and are the basis of the modern world order. But this opinion is not shared by all intellectuals in Russia. First is the specificity of the Russian mentality, social consciousness and social life. The idea of 'Russia's own way' is much referred to by various political movements of pronounced nationalist color, but we have to study this idea at its deepest level rather than oversimplify reality. Yet even most thinkers who are oriented to the West and have insisted on the adoption of Western values and standards have also strongly criticized European civilization. Secondly, liberalism does not have a simple meaning. It connotes a number of complex ideological systems transformed over time both in theory and in political practice. Therefore, it is important to analyze the metaphysical premises of liberal doctrines and systems. I will examine assessments of liberal ideas made by Russian religious philosophers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as P. Struve, N. Novgorodtsev, I. Iliin, and S. Frank who all considered liberalism primarily a metaphysical rather than a legal or political phenomenon, and interpreted it as an empirical manifestation of the deep nature of the human spiritual reality. The problem of choosing the way for our country unavoidably makes us discuss the problem of liberalism. At the first sight, this should not be problem at all, as the liberal principles underlie Western society and so make the basis of the whole modern world order. But such a straight opinion is not shared by all political people here in Russia and there are two major reasons for this. First of the two is specificity of Russian mentality, Russian social consciousness, and generally all Russian social life. The idea of Russia's own way is, true, much used by various political movements of pronounced nationalist color, but we have to study this idea to the most possible deepness to not be oversimplifying the reality. It was common among all political groups and movements to state Russia's special historical fate and ways. Even the most westernly oriented political thinkers, though insisted on the adoption of Western values and standards, strongly criticized European civilization at the same time (so did Hertzen in his late years, for example).

Do Animals Need A Bill of Rights? Essay

Animals on a daily basis all over the world are being mistreated and abused by many people that do not care for them. There are very few people attempting to protect these animals, whether they are domestic animals, farm animals, or wildlife animals. More attention should be drawn to the treatment of animals because even if we do have laws for animals and for their well being, many people still do not follow these laws. The laws already established for animals should be enforced, because I do agree that animals need protection, as in free from any harm done towards them purposely, but to have a Bill of Rights specifically made for animals seems extreme. Reasons for believing that animals need protection from any harm done to them from humanity is that many animals are being used for scientific experiments that harm these animals in a cruel way. Yes, there are experiments that use animals and may not harm them in any way, which is fine if there’s no harm being done to them. For example in the article â€Å"A Change of Heart about Animals† by Jeremy Rifkin states, â€Å"In controlled experiments, scientists at Oxford University reported that two birds named Betty and Abel were given a choice between using two tools, one a straight wire, the other a hooked wire, to snag a piece of meat from inside a tube.† This experiment was fine to conduct because in no way were these crows harmed. The only thing the scientists were doing was observing the crow’s behavior. If there needs to be experiments done to animals for whatever reason, the experiments should be conducted in a way that the animals are not harmed. Another reason for believing that animals need protection is that animals are being harmed or mistreated by people who have a habit of using animals for entertainment. A form of entertainment for humanity from animals in a cruel way is hunting wildlife animals and killing them or fishing. Lions, tigers, bears, dears, and cheetahs are examples of wildlife animals that are hunted and killed for either their meat or fur. Fishing is also a form of entertainment for sportsmen that catch fish to eat and don’t realize the pain caused to the fish when the sportsmen kill them.  For example in the article, â€Å"Hooked on a Myth† by Victoria Braithwaite states, â€Å"Every year, sportsmen around the world drag millions of fish to shore on barbed hook s. It’s something people have always done, and with little enough conscience.† This shows how people do not think of the harm they are doing to fish. Just because the fish are not crying or yelling with pain does not mean they are not feeling it. We as humans need to think of the animals as living as well. We humans may not understand them, but animals do have feelings and we need to pay more attention to their treatment. Animals are also used for research such as human’s closest relatives, which are apes, gorillas, and chimpanzees. There are people who believe since these specific animals are as close in DNA as us that they should be used for research to find out how our â€Å"species† function. In the article, â€Å"Of Primates and Personhood: Will According Rights and â€Å"Dignity† to Nonhuman Organisms Halt Research?† by Ed Yong, Franz de Waal of Emory University, says â€Å"I do think we have special obligations to the great apes as our closest relatives, but if we give rights to apes, what would be the compelling reason not to give rights to monkeys, dogs, rats, and so on?† Apes should not be the only animals receiving rights only because they are our closest relatives. Other animals are being used for research and not cared for, why should they suffer? I believe it is inhumane of us to be so blind of all the harm being done to all animals just for our convenience. In no way do animal’s benefit from being killed and used as research, we on the other hand utilize them as if they were objects. The issue worldwide is that these animals are being mistreated and abused by humans and therefore should be protected from us, but not make a big decision such as making a Bill of Rights for animals. There are laws already established to protect these animals, and should just be enforced. If these laws are broken by us humans then we should have a punishment, but that’s all it should be a law to protect these animals and do no harm to them. We should not go to an extreme and create a Bill of Rights for animals.

Saying There Is and There Are in Spanish

It is often said that there is or there are is expressed in Spanish using the verb hay (a form of haber) — and indeed that is usually so. However, there are some instances where forms of the verb estar — typically està ¡ (singular) or està ¡n (plural) — should be used. The difference is one in meaning: Hay is used to refer to mere existence.Està ¡ or està ¡n is used when describing a location. As an example, examine this simple sentence: There is a book. At least in writing, the English is ambiguous — the sentence could be phrased as a book is there, meaning that a book is in a certain location. Or could be interpreted as A book exists. In Spanish a different verb would be used for each interpretation. To say that the book is in a location, use a form of estar: El libro està ¡ allà ­. (The book is there.)But to say it merely exists, use a form of haber, in this case hay: Hay un libro. (A book exists.) Eliminating Ambiguity in Translating There The same principle applies in many other cases where the English might be ambiguous: No hay dinero. (There isnt any money, because it doesnt exist.) El dinero no està ¡. (The money exists, but its not here.)No hay profesor. (Theres no teacher, meaning, for instance, that one hasnt been hired.) El profesor no està ¡. (Theres a teacher, but the teacher isnt here.)Hay dos escuelas. (There are two schools, that is, two schools exist.) Dos escuelas està ¡n allà ­. (There are two schools, meaning, two schools are in the direction that is being pointed to.)Hay vacas en Argentina. (There are cows in Argentina.) Las vacas està ¡n en Argentina. (The specific cows are there, in Argentina.)Sà ³lo hay una cosa importante. (There is only one important thing.) La cosa importante està ¡ en otro lado. (The important thing is on the other side. Here cosa refers to a specific object.) Abstract nouns, or nouns that dont refer to an object that can exist in a specific location, normally are not used with estar, but with hay: Hay muchos problemas. (There are many problems.)No hay felicidad sin amor. (There is no happiness without love.)Hay un montà ³n de cosas que quiero decirte. (There is a pile of things I want to say to you.)Hay dos tipos de dolor: el que te lastima y el que te cambia. (There are two kinds of pain: the kind that  hurts you and the kind that changes you.) Another way of understanding the differences involves looking the grammar of the English being translated. In sentences there is is translated using estar, there is functioning as an adverb of location. If here can be substituted for there and the sentence still makes sense, there is being used for location. However, when there is being used as a dummy word, haber is used in translation. Estar vs. Haber in Other Tenses Although examples in the present indicative tense were used above, the same rules apply in other tenses and in the subjunctive mood. Fui a su casa, pero no estaba. (I went to her house, but she wasnt there.)No habà ­a transportacià ³n porque no comprà © un coche. (There was no transportation because I didnt buy a car.)Si hubiera unicornios, la gente los verà ­an. (If there were unicorns, people would see them.)Quiero que haya paz en el mundo. (I want there to be peace in the world.)No quiero que à ©l està © allà ­. (I dont want him to be there.) A Similar Use of Ser When it is used to indicate mere existence, haber can be used only in the third person in standard Spanish. It is often possible to use ser in a similar way in the first- and second-person plural (we and you, respectively). This use is especially common with numbers. Somos seis. (There are six of us.)Ya somos veinte en la clase. (Now there are 20 of us in the class.)Son ustedes cinco hombres. (There are five of you men.)Si sois siete, te ruego que me digas  ¿cà ³mo puede ser? (If there are seven of you, I beg that you tell me, how this can be?) Key Takeaways Although forms of estar and haber can be used in translating there is and there are, their meanings are not the same.Estar is used when suggesting existence in a location, while haber is used in referring to mere existence.Haber also is used with abstract nouns, which dont refer to objects.