BSP1702 / BSP1004 Legal Environment Of Business

Module: BSP1702 / BSP1004 Legal Environment Of Business

Semester taken: AY 2018/19 Semester 2

Lecturer: No lecturer, module is sectional-based

Tutor: Prof Sharma Sundareswara

Textbook: Ravi Chandran: Introduction to Business Law in Singapore (5th Ed), 2015

What it is about

This module teaches students some basic legal knowledge that are relevant for managers during the course of conducting a business. You will be exposed to the many common legal statutes that directly affect how a business will function and operate, such as contract law, employment law, etc, and will have to analyse certain cases to identify the legal issues that arise from them using the knowledge that you have learnt during the sectionals.

Assessment components

• 30% - Group case presentation

• 20% - Individual class participation

• 50% - Final examination (open-book; a mix of MCQs and 1 or 2 case studies)

Comments

This module was originally taught by the author of the module’s textbook, which is Prof Ravi Chandran. He is well known to be a very good professor and gets you interested in the module even if you hate it. Hence, it was a big disappointment when he was not teaching the module.

I took this module in this semester because one of my friends suggested taking it so that you can S/U it, probably because the content is extremely hard to master. There is some truth in this statement, because there really is a lot of content that is covered during the sectionals and the slides provided are usually very barebones, which may or may not be sufficient in your revision for finals.

The textbook is extremely important here, really because the slides are that bad. In fact, you can survive the module by just studying the textbook, but you need to know what is in or not in the syllabus. The textbook has a lot of extra information that you do not need.

Sectionals

The lessons are 3 hours long and usually has about 1 hour 30 minutes dedicated to teaching new content, 30 minutes for tutorials and 30 minutes for case presentations. The slides do not expect us to read the textbook beforehand, but it is clear that during sectionals, those that have read the textbook have a significant advantage for class participation compared to those that did not flip the book. So, to ace that class participation, be sure to read up the textbook and be prepared before coming for lesson!

Case presentations

For the case presentations, an actual lawsuit case will be assigned to you to analyse. There are some general guiding questions that apply for every single case, but usually the case that you need to present about is relevant to the content that is being taught for that particular week that you are presenting. So, it would be good to read up beforehand what the lesson is about and focus your presentation on those aspects.

You will need to form a group of about 5 people to do the case presentation. During the presentation however, only 3 people will be able to present, but anyone can answer questions during the Q&A segment. Make sure you deliver a good presentation! My case presentation tanked really bad (got a B) mainly because we thought presentation skills are not important here. We only dressed up, but we presented off the script, and my group sent the worst speakers to present. When we got back our feedback, the tutor commented that our content was very good, but the presentation was extremely bad to justify our grade.

Finals

For finals, there will be details about the format of the final examination. However, depending on your tutor, you may or may not get past year papers to practice with. I was lucky that I had friends in other sectional groups that had much nicer tutors, so I just spammed practice on the past year papers.

The format of my exam was a mix of MCQs and a case study and is open-book. The MCQs will test you about facts regarding certain statutes whereas the case study will require you to read the case and identify certain legal issues to talk about. Usually, the question will want you to “comment on the legal issues in the case” or even provide advice for a certain party in the case. Doing past year papers helps a lot in this aspect and also know the format of answering the question.

Other information

Assignment workload: There is only 1 sectional per week, which sometimes may have tutorials to prepare for.

Project workload: A case presentation as a group. If you are scheduled to present early in the semester, then you will be done with it earlier than the rest.

Readings: Heavy. The module is designed based on the textbook, so naturally the textbook has to be read to even pass the module.

Recommended if: A compulsory module for both business and accounting students. Non-business students will take BSP1702X which covers the same content but is slightly easier in the final exams.

Rating: 4.0/5. I find law very interesting and was very excited to take this module. However, if you hate reading the literal meaning of words, then this module might be a struggle.

Expected grade: B+ (mainly because of my case presentation and heard from my friend that it is very hard to score well)

Actual grade: B+