Business Law

This introductory course provides business professionals from all backgrounds with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of universal commercial law principles applicable to all major jurisdictions. Students will be furnished with the basic tools to tackle more advanced areas of business law that they may meet later on in whatever jurisdiction or line of business they find themselves working in. This vast but fascinating and practical area of law, the product of centuries of human ingenuity and the expansion of global trade, will be livened up with plenty of illuminating cases from two common law jurisdictions (England and the USA) and one civil jurisdiction (Japan).

1. Demonstrate the ability to understand
2. Properly apply international legal standards
3. Address real-world business problems
4. Assist in handling domestic and cross-border legal transactions.

Those who are interested in international business and cross-border business transactions, including attorney and non-attorney legal professionals, students, business people, and life-long learners.

Global Business Management: Accounting and Finance, Legal Studies

Handouts; no text required

Christopher Rathbone

Christopher Rathbone is a foreign associate at the full-service law firm, City-Yuwa Partners in Tokyo where he specializes in international transactions. He has taught classes and provided seminars on legal translation, legal writing and contracts for Japanese, Korean, Cambodian and US universities, as well as the Tokyo offices of many top US law firms. As a long term resident of Japan who is fluent in Japanese, Mr. Rathbone’s classes and seminars provide both practical information and cultural insights. In addition to legal writing and contracts, he frequently gives presentations on diverse topics including Plain English and the legal profession in Japan and the US. As a health advocate, he also writes articles and speaks on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the intersection of tobacco and human rights. Mr. Rathbone graduated with honors from the University of Saskatchewan and earned a J.D. from the College of Law of the University of Saskatchewan and an LL.M. from Hokkaido University as a Monbusho Scholar. He is admitted as an attorney in Massachusetts.