BUL 5831 – COMMERCIAL LAW
ONLINE COURSE SYLLABUS
SUMMER, 2009
SECTION 5120
This course requires proctored exams. If you are unable to take the exams
at the UWF campus and are unable to locate a testing center in your area,
do not register for this course.
Course Prefix/Number:
BUL 5831
Course Title:
Commercial Law
Course Credit Hours:
3 hours
Instructor Name and Contact Information:
Donald Roark
Instructor in Business Law
Department of Accounting and Finance
College of Business
Building 76, Room 217
(850) 474-2733
Office Hours:
Monday, Wednesday: 9:15 AM to 10:15 AM, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Other times by appointment
Email: droark@uwf.edu
Prerequisites or Co-Requisites:
BUL 3130
Course Description:
Commercial Law is the second of two courses offered by the College of Business
which examine legal issues and topics that relate to business. This course will
address the following business related legal areas: Secured Transactions,
Bankruptcy, Business Entities (with an emphasis on corporations and corporate
governance), Governmental Regulation of Business (including environmental
regulation), Employment and Labor Law, Insurance Law and Probate Law
(Estates and Estate Administration).
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will have an understanding of the creation and perfection of secured
interests, the priorities of competing secured and unsecured claims, defaults and
remedies for default on secured transactions.
Students will have an understanding of basic federal bankruptcy law, including
Chapter 7 liquidations, Chapter 11 business reorganizations, and Chapter 13
consumer debt adjustment bankruptcies.
Students will know the basic forms of business entities in which business can be
conducted, including sole proprietorships, general and limited partnerships,
limited liability companies, and corporations. They will understand the
mechanics of governance of corporations, and will be able to assess the
advantages and disadvantages of a choice of business entity, weighing such
factors as limited liability, tax advantages, and management issues.
Students will have an understanding of the rudimentary aspects of Employment
and Labor Law, Environmental Law, Governmental Regulatory Law, Insurance
Law, and Probate Law.
Topics Covered:
Secured Transactions
Bankruptcy Law
Employment Law
Labor Law
Business Entities
Administrative Law (Governmental Regulatory Law)
Environmental Law
Insurance Law
Probate Law
Texts:
Required Texts:
Contemporary Business and Online Commerce Law, Sixth Edition, by
Henry R. Cheeseman, Pearson-Prentice Hall, publishers. ISBN:
9780136015000.
While you may be able to locate prior editions of this textbook on the
market, it is very difficult to use an earlier version, as the chapter numbers and
case problems, and to some degree the text, are changed.
Online Course Assignments:
This course is being offered as an online course, which means, among
other things, that we will not have classroom meetings during the semester. This
means that you will be individually responsible for reading the material and
completing the required written assignments on the text. I am scheduling the
required assignments to be completed and turned in on a bi-weekly basis, so that
the completion schedule for the written assignments will correspond with the text
material that is covered in the mid-term and final exams. You may complete the
assignments ahead of the required schedule, as long as you keep in mind the
material that will be covered in each exam.
I will be using the eLearning system (available to you through ARGUS) for
assignments, grade notification and other materials. The required assignments
will be available on the eLearning site for the course (click on “content” when you
bring up the eLearning home page for the course) and are to be submitted to the
appropriate Dropbox by the deadline date. The deadlines for the written
assignments are listed below in the syllabus. Your scores for the assignments
and the exams will be posted on the “Grades” page of the eLearning site.
Also available on the “Content” page of the eLearning site are Power Point
slide presentations for each chapter that we will cover in the text. You are
encouraged to view the slide presentations as part of your overall preparation for
the assignments and the exams.
Assignments:
The deadlines for submission of the written assignments for the course are as
follows:
Assignment No. 1.
Deadline date for submission: Friday, May 22nd .
Assignment No. 2
Deadline date for submission: Friday, June 5th .
Assignment No. 3
Deadline date for submission: Friday, June 19th .
(Midterm exam will be given on Chs. 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, and 30 on Friday, June
19th, and Saturday, June 20th. The first exam date will be offered at the Ft.
Walton Beach campus, time and place TBA, and the second exam date will be
offered at the main Pensacola UWF campus. (If you are taking the exam at a
testing center, you will be expected to schedule your exam on Friday, June
19th or Saturday, June 20th. Most testing centers are not open on Saturday.)
Assignment No. 4
Deadline date for submission: Thursday, July 2nd.
Assignment No. 5
Deadline date for submission: Friday, July 17th.
Assignment No. 6
Deadline date for submission: Friday, July 31st.
(Final exam on Chs. 32, 34, 35, 36, 37(part) and 39(part), on Friday, July 31 st
and Saturday, August 1st. Same particulars as the midterm exam, above.)
Grading/Evaluation:
This course requires proctored exams. If you are unable to take the exams
at the UWF campus and are unable to locate a testing center in your area,
do not register for this course.
Grading will be based on three components, each of which will count as a portion
of your total grade. They are as follows:’
1)
The successful and timely completion of the written assignments will
count for 60 points of the total 260 available points in the course.
Each assignment will be worth 10 total points. Submission deadlines
occur at 12:00 midnight on the date indicated. For every portion of a
24 hour period that you miss the assignment deadline, you will lose
two points on that assignment. Points will also be deducted if you fail
to complete the assignment. Otherwise, the assignments will be
graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
2)
A Mid-Term Exam will cover Chapters 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, and 30, and
will count for 100 points of the total 260 available points in the course.
The exam will be an objective test, probably multiple choice. We will
arrange times and locations on the listed dates at the Ft. Walton Beach
campus and at the main UWF campus. I will email you with those
times and dates. If you are not able to attend either of these
locations, and that would require that you are not living in this
immediate area, you will need to arrange to have a test proctor in
your locale to administer the test to you and return it to me for
grading. This should be a testing center or similar location. (See
below)
3)
A non-cumulative Final Exam will cover Chapters 32, 35, 35, 36,
37(part), and 39(part), and will count for 100 points of the total 260
available points in the course. Again, the exam will be an objective
exam, probably multiple choice. We will again arrange times and
locations on the listed dates at the Ft. Walton Beach campus and the
main campus. Those students who do not live in this area will follow a
similar procedure for testing that they used for the Mid-Term Exam.
The grading scale for the course will be as follows:
235 points or above
230 - 234 points
220 - 229 points
205 – 219 points
195 – 204 points
185 – 194 points
165 – 184 points
Below 165 points
A
AB+
B
C+
C
D
F
Proctored exams for distance learning students:
If you are not located in the Pensacola/Ft. Walton Beach area, you will
need to arrange with a testing center in your area to be able to take the midterm
and final exam in this course. Testing centers are available at universities and
community colleges, where they sometimes offer this service for free, and there
are commercial testing centers available as well. You will need to contact your
testing center, schedule your testing date(s), and otherwise be responsible for
obtaining and scheduling the required facility. If it is an official testing center, you
do not need to complete the UWF Proctored Exam form. I will need the name
of your contact person and the address of the testing center as soon as
possible. Please email this information to me as soon as it is available. I will
provide paper exams and return envelopes to the testing centers by mail prior to
the exam dates.
Expectations for Academic Conduct/Plagiarism Policy:
As members of the University of West Florida, we commit ourselves to honesty.
As we strive for excellence in performance, integrity – personal and institutional –
is our most precious asset. Honesty in our academic work is vital, and we will
not knowingly act in ways which erode that integrity. Accordingly, we pledge not
to cheat, nor to tolerate cheating, not to plagiarize the work of others. We pledge
to share community resources in ways that are responsible and that comply with
established policies of fairness. Cooperation and competition are means to high
achievement and are encouraged. Indeed, cooperation is expected unless our
directive is to individual performance. We will compete constructively and
professionally for the purpose of stimulating high performance standards.
Finally, we accept adherence to this set of expectations for academic conduct as
a condition of membership in the UWF academic community.
Assistance:
Students with special needs who require specific examination-related or other
course-related accommodations should contact Barbara Fitzpatrick, Director of
Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC), sdrc@uwf.edu, (850) 474-2387.
SDRC will provide the student with a letter for the instructor that will specify any
recommended accommodations.