Introduction
Criminal liability is an aspect that is normally said to be an illegal act that is done by a person
and the executed act can further lead into the person involved to be responsible towards any
damage caused thus risking being arrested and in the long run be charged in a court of law. In
this discussion, more focus is put on the criminal liabilities that are done against the norms of
a given business as entailed in the business law and ethics.
Business from a wider perspective is normally understood differently by various people.
Some people normally refer to business as an activity with monetary gain. Others refer to a
business as a method that majorly deals with monetary transactions on behalf of others, and
lastly, it is viewed as an orderly activity aimed at helping one achieve certain goals (Esmaeili,
2021). Generally, it can be concluded that a business is a useful activity with great returns
from the exchange of various goods within the market structure.
The nature of business activity within society is normally of great importance within society
as it works towards the proper supply of goods to their consumers. This factor varies with the
business size, which is determined by the employee base and or even the market coverage of
their goods or services.
For each and every business to have a successful operation, they need to put up some of their
own standards, which is done through coming up with proper business goals that include;
maximizing
1. the sales, thus ensuring higher profit gains. ensuring
2. quality product disbursement that helps them earn maximum customer trust.
3. Good relationships with employees will motivate them to work hard and do their best.
4. customer boundary creation within the market with potential/loyal customers
In each and every business entity, a majority of the activities that take place are normally
dependent on the personal agreement that is come into between the business owner and the
company’s employees (Fort & Haugh,2020). The agreements that are normally made, most of
them, are always made on promises whose execution is to be done later on, after the date of
the agreement. When the set-up agreements are not put into action and sternly executed, the
business normally risks failing and its operations being paralyzed. For these set up
agreements to be made operational, there is normally the introduction of the law of contract.
The law cannot always provide a list of duties that must be enforced; instead, it usually lays
down rules based on the previously established agreement between the involved parties in the
business.
In the cause of the business operation, the employees and even the customers can always go
against the setup standard that may lead to the involved person causing a criminal liability
against him/herself. This article in general is determined to focus on the various causes of a
criminal liability by various individuals within a business entity.
Furthermore, within a business structure, whenever an agreement is reached and the
agreement is breached, the law can take its course, and it usually ends up being a contract that
now entails two major parts: the agreement part and the duties that if not performed, the law
is put into action (Halbert & Ingulli,2020). An agreement is usually reached after a more in-
depth discussion between the parties involved, which leads to mind concurrence and the
signing of a contract. A discussion between different parties that ends without reaching a
common point of agreement, on the other hand, is considered null and void because no
agreement is reached. In the overall view, an agreement can be generally termed as the set of
promises that are made and effectively put into consideration.
In business law, it is always upon the involved parties in any given agreement to adhere to
their obligations. It is always the law for everyone to fulfill their promised duties in the
agreement because this is usually the binding factor behind their previous agreement unless
otherwise stated.
In order for one to enter into a binding contract, it is advisable for them to quickly evaluate
the various elements entailed within the contract to be signed. For an agreement to be reached
first, there is normally a need to check into the competency of the people entering into the
contract. Second, there is a need for the provision of consent that is out of personal decision
but not under the influence of any external force (Hall et al., 2018). Third, there is a need to
put into consideration the ’Lawful Consideration and Object’. In this act, it is said that there
is normally something in return for any agreement. The return, in most cases, is not advisable
to be in monetary form but can be made in the form of a promise to either do or not do
something with deep consideration slanted towards the law.
In business law, there are different kinds of contracts that are normally made between
different groups of people. These contracts include
1. A valid contract is one that is always legally binding and ensures the fulfillment of all
key points of an agreement, and failure to comply with such agreements can result in
a court case.
2. A voidable contract is a contract that always has the two different parties' having
different consents. This contract is enforced by the law through the generation of
pressure from only one of the parties involved in the contract. There are normally
certain circumstances that may lead to a contract being voidable. These factors arise
in two different stages: during the conception stage, where factors such as fraudulent
consent making, misrepresentation of consent, externally catalyzed consent, and many
more. The second stage is that of a subsequent default stage that may occur when a
certain performance offer is not considered, or the failure of one of the parties
involved to perform its scheduled task as per the scheduled timings.
3. A void contract is one that is entered into outside of the law and cannot be enforced
by the law if the involved parties fail to adhere to the contract's established demands.
4. agreement This is normally an agreement that, in most cases, is not open to being
executed by the cause of the law. This agreement normally lacks some other useful
components that make an agreement attached to the law for its enforcibility.
Illegal agreement These are normally agreements done behind the law since they are not
recommended to be done by the law. Most of these agreements normally tend to violate the
law by doing the opposite of what is necessary. Despite the fact that illegal agreements are
always void, it is not true that void agreements, on the other hand, are illegal (Haugh, 2019).
1. Unlawful agreement Various agreements are always referred to as being unlawful due
to the following supporting factors.
2. The agreements are normally the exact opposite of what the law needs.
3. The agreement may violate the general functionality of various legal institutions, such
as the judiciary, or even that of ordinary public people through activities such as
bribery.
4. The agreement may also be an illegal agreement that is done against the required
standards of the law.
5. The express contract, which is normally a contract reached into through either writing
the intentions of the involved parties, may also be done verbally. From
the above discussions, it can be deduced that a contract is an agreement between two or more
people, and in most cases, for a contract to be referred to as such, there must always be an
accompanying law suit to bind it (Light & Sound, 2019).
Criminal Liability
Criminal liability is normally defined as the act of legally holding somebody responsible for
committing a given breach of the law. Through this fact, the suspected person always risks
being charged by a court of law and being sentenced if found guilty of committing the said
offence.
The presiding prosecutor in these kinds of cases is always tasked with bringing the necessary
charges against the offender. Mary's act has committed an obvious criminal liability that, if
taken seriously, could have led to her prosecution. It is evident that Mary makes a move to
access the office premises during non-official hours using her pass card, which is an act that
is against the law of any business. In each and every business, both the employees and even
the customers are normally allowed to only access the business premises during the official
office hours as per the policies of the company and any other time that has been approved by
the company’s management. With reference to the above, Mary has evidently performed an
illegal act against the law, thus being a criminal liability cause.
In the second act, the task given to the prosecutor is that of charging a case that involves an
attempted or even a completed acquisition of something minus the consent of the legal owner
of that particular thing. With reference to the offered case, at this point, Mary additionally
risks being charged with an offence of false acquirry of a good minus the consent of the
owner. We see that after Mary illegally gets access to the offices at non-official hours, she
goes ahead and takes a portrait belonging to the company’s boss and goes with it (Wendzel et
al.,2019). This act is evidently that of stealing and is normally against the code of conduct
entailed by business laws and ethics.
Mary is seen to have also breached the formal agreement that she came into with the
company’s manager, who doubles up as her grandmother. As can be derived from the written
report, the two must have agreed on a common thing that despite the low pay that was being
given to her as compared to the other employees, her dedication and hard work, which was
accompanied by the timely completion of her assigned tasks on time, could lead to her
inheritance of the company from her grandmother (Sinaga et al.,2020). Despite the promise
given to Mary by her grandmother, she still went ahead to defy the tasks assigned to her on
the basis of complaining about the low pay being given to her.
Another criminal liability caused by Mary is seen when she sneaked back into the offices on
the following weekend to return the stolen portrait as her plans never bore fruit. On mounting
the portrait back to its original place, it happens that a security officer sees her and makes
advances towards her (Orenstein, 2019). She becomes nervous and fears that she may risk
being arrested. Due to the panic, Mary decides to knock down the security officer with the
portrait on the head, an act that saw the officer undergo serious injury due to the unsafe
landing that he made on the ground. This act can be classified as a civil case that may have
been committed out of negligence or rather, tension. In the case of Mary, it occurred due to
the fear she had of being arrested by the security officer.
From the above provisions, it is quite evident that Mary has definitely committed numerous
offenses that she can definitely be held responsible for, thus making her viable to be arrested
and face charges against her (Mosechkin,2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have seen that for each and every business to be successful, there is
normally a given set of laws that govern a business known as Business Law and Ethics. This
set of laws and ethics are meant to be strictly followed by all the involved parties in a given
business. In this study, we were majorly focusing on a section entailed within business ethics
and law that deals with employee and employer agreements dependent on the contracts made
between them. Additionally, we look at the importance of keeping within the consent of a
given contract minus breaking the previous laid down agreement. We find out further that
most of the contracts are bonded to the law and the failure of any of the involved parties to
fulfill their agreement may end up being lawfully enforced so that justice can be gotten to the
other party whose promises have not been fulfilled.
Lastly, we have checked into criminal liability, which is an act that gives support to the
involvement of a person in a given unlawful act. We have found that an employee of a given
company named Mary breaches business law and ethics in many ways, causing criminal
liability against herself.
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