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.
Resources most frequently used include
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
Materials more than 5 years old will be retained only if they meet at least one of the following criteria:
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
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.
LAW7020 Professional Ethics, Responsibility & Liability for CPAs**
TAX 7530 Strategic Business and Tax Planning**