Horn Library Content Strategy

Collection Description: Law & Tax

The study of law is essential to the understanding of business regulation both at home and abroad.  Acquisitions support the required introductory business law course offered at both the undergraduate and the various MBA program levels.  Students have some exposure to legal case research in the introductory law course.  The one-year MBA covers ethical decisionmaking in business and financial statements, moral risk and corporate governance in MODULE I. Law permeates all four modules in the two-year MBA: legal issues in management decisionmaking at home and abroad, employment law, intellectural property, forms of business organization, securities law, mergers & acquisitions, and bribery. Popular topics include constitutional issues and intellectual property.  The range of class-assigned paper topics can vary, particularly for multi-sectional courses and for selected professors.

In the more specialized area of taxation, one course is offered in the undergraduate business curricuum.  At the MBA level, one tax course figures in the MSA (Master of Science in Accounting) program.

a.   Languages:  Acquisitions are restricted to English language materials.

b.   Geographical Guidelines:  While the primary focus is on North America, there is a growing interest in the legal climate in the European Community, Latin America and Asia.  Materials on comparative legal/tax systems and types of international business organization are collected based on availability.

c.   Chronological Guidelines:  The emphasis is on current information.  Exceptions include the texts of administrative, legislative and case law, which document the current regulatory climate, are still binding or are considered landmark.

d.   Treatment of Subject:  Acquisitions support basic legal/tax research and current topics of legal/tax concern in the business environment, with an emphasis on primary sources.  Primary sources for Massachusetts and Supreme Court case law, U.S. administrative law, the U.S. Code Service, and the Uniform Commercial Code, as well as law journals and a legal encyclopedia, are accessible electronically.  Manuals, handbooks, guides, and dictionaries are available via the Virtual Reference Shelf.  Normally treatises and primary sources (other than those mentioned above) are excluded.  Only bibliographies that are annotated and of classic stature will be collected.

Interdisciplinary Relationships:  International law draws on world POLITICS, as well as ECONOMICS.  American Constitutional Law is a GOVERNMENT offering.  Advertising law considers the legal interface with MARKETING.  The LIBERAL ARTS (Arts & Humanities Division and History & Society Division) offer 4 courses in which some aspect of law is prominent. Entrepreneurship classes need information on forms of business organization, franchising law, patents, intellectual property and regulations.  Country studies require information on licensing, trade law, taxation and employment law.  Sample legal contracts are needed for a variety of business transactions.

Key Content

Resources most frequently used include

  • Primary legal documents (Nexis Uni, WestlawNext Campus Research)
  • Journal articles in specialized resources (Tax Analysts, Accounting & Tax Database on Proquest, in addition to the above)
  • Journal articles in non-specialized resources (Business Source Premier, Gale Databases, Proquest, news sources)

Core periodicals are those that are essential to teaching, idea generation, research, and required for accreditation.  The following represents only a sampling of the top journals that have withstood the rigors of citation analysis (research) and are recognized/ frequently requested titles (practitioner). 

These are the core periodicals for law and tax:

Research: Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, New York University Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Cornell Law Review; Tax Law Review, Tax Notes, Virginia Tax Review, Florida Tax Review.

Practitioner/Trade publications: The Trademark Reporter, ABA Journal, Antitrust Law Journal, Journal of Taxation (This is a somewhat more subjective list because practitioner journals are not usually ranked.)

Cass R. Sunstein, Richard A. Posner

Eli Bortman, Craig Ehrlich, Carolyn Hotchkiss, Toni Lester, Richard Mandel, Ross Petty

Print Collection

Materials more than 5 years old will be retained only if they meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • They are primary sources (and in the case of regulations are currently valid).
  • They are basic reference tools and have not been superseded.
  • They are classics.
  • They are timeless as to the treatment of subject matter.
  • They provide historical background of the legal profession and its documents (example: the Constitution).
  • They furnish biographical information on leaders in the profession.
  • They are serial publications which contain data (example: CCH Master Tax Gluide).

JX   International Law

JX1305-1598   International Relations

JX1901-1981   International Organization

K   Law

K1-7720   Law in General.  Comparative and Uniform Law.

KF   Law of the United States

KF50-90   Statutes/Administrative Regulations

KF101-153   Law Reports & Related Materials

KF154   Encyclopedias

KF156   Law Dictionaries

KF240-247   Legal Research

KF801-1241   Contracts

KF1365-1380   Business Organizations

KF1384-1480   Corporations

KF1600-2940   Regulation of Commerce, Industry, Trade

KF1600   Consumer Protection

KF1614-1617   Advertising

KF2971-3193   Intellectual Property

KF4501-5130   Constitutional Law

KF6271-6645   Federal Taxation

KFM2401-2999   Law of Massachusetts   

Courses Supported

With the exception of the foundation course in law, LAW 1000, there are no strictly required law courses for any concentration in the undergraduate curriculum. Courses tend to be grouped for each concentration; the student needs to select one or more courses from the required group, or a strongly suggested or elective group of courses in which one or more law courses figure.

         LAW1000       Business Law

         LAW3500       Commercial Law

         LAW3515       Entertainment Law

         LAW3520       Marketing Law in the E-Commerce Era

         LAW3560       International Law for Business

         LAW3572       Technology and E-Commerce Law

         LAW3573       Building Contracts for New Ventures

         LAW3601       Public International Law and World
                              Order

         LAW3610       Intolerance, Culture and the Law

         LAW3616       Role of Animals in Technology, Law
                              and Society

         LAW3661       American Constitutional Law

         LAW3671       European Unification & U.S.
                              Federalism: A Comparative Perspective

         LAW3672       Intolerance, Culture and the Law

         LAW3675       Innovation Law: A Critical Analysis

         LAW3690       European Union vs. United States

         TAX3500        Taxes

Note: Law courses support 11 out of 27 concentrations.

LAW7200* is required in all MBA programs.  LAW7020** and TAX7530** are required courses in the MSA program. One law course is required for the MS in Management in Entrepreneurial Leadership. 

      LAW7200       Law

      LAW7020       Professional Ethics, Responsibility & Liability for CPAs**                        

      TAX 7530       Strategic Business and Tax Planning**