HOLMES INSTITUTE
FACULTY OF
HIGHER EDUCATION
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester T1 2020
Unit Code HI6027
Unit Title Business and Corporate Law
Assessment Type Group Assignment
Assessment Title Case Studies of Business Law and Business Structures
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO
Mapping) The purpose of the Group Assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to work in a collaborative environment in solving two case problems by citing the relevant legal rules and cases and applying these to the facts of the case.
In this Group Assignments, students are required to:
- Critically analyse the ethical implications of legal decisions and how they impact on the business environment. (ULO 2)
- Assess the obligations, rights and remedies available to parties in particular commercial relationships. (ULO 3)
- Critically examine the foundations of Australian company law. (ULO 4)
- Critically discuss and apply contract and tort law in business circumstances. (ULO 5) - Critically discuss and apply the legal framework that regulates a company’s dealings with outsiders. (ULO 7)
Weight 30% of the total assessments
Total Marks 30%
Word limit Group Written Report of maximum 2,000 words
Due Date Week 11
Submission Guidelines • All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Page.
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, no spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page numbers.
• Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using the AGLC style.
Assignment Specifications
Purpose:
The Group Assignment aims to provide students with an opportunity to work in a collaborative environment in solving two case problems by citing the relevant legal rules and cases and applying these to the facts of the case.
Students are to form groups, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 students per group. The assignment consists of a 2,000-word written report.
Instructions: Please read and re-read carefully to avoid mistakes.
Group Report
1. This group assignment consists of 2 parts. Part A is a question on Contract Law, and Part B is a question involving Business Structures. Both questions must be answered.
2. The total word limit for the group report is 2,000 words (+/- 10% allowed) with each part having a maximum word count of 1,000 words. Word count limits are strictly enforced. A deduction of two (2) marks will be imposed for every 50 words over the word count for either part of the report. Anything over the word count will not be read by your lecturer.
3. The total word count for the report as well as each part must be clearly written on the cover sheet of the assignment. A paper will not be marked if the word counts are not written on the cover sheet.
4. The group report is worth 30% of total marks in this unit.
Important Reminders:
• You must form your groups by self-enrolment in Blackboard. Please refer to the document “Group Assessment Self Enrolment Tutorial”, that has been posted in Blackboard (under announcements and also in “Assessments” folder). This document will assist you with the process of self-enrolling in a group to undertake an assessment task in Blackboard Ultra.
• All group report submissions must be de done online and run through SafeAssign. No hard copies are to be submitted. Only one group member needs to submit for the whole group.
• Please fill in the “Rubric Group Report” sheet (available in Blackboard under “Assignments and Due dates) and attach as a cover sheet to your group report and upload on Blackboard.
• Each team member also must also submit to their lecturer/tutor a “Peer Evaluation of Individual Participation in Group Assignment” sheet (available in Blackboard under “Assignments and Due dates) with their assignment.
• Group report must be submitted via SafeAfssign on Blackboard and show a similarity percentage figure. Any group report that does not show a SafeAssign similarity percentage will not be marked and be required to re-submit.
• Late submissions will be subject to Holmes Institute policy on student assessment submission and late penalties (please refer to subject outline and Student handbook).
• All reports are expected to observe proper referencing in accordance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC). A copy of the AGLC has been posted in the Week 2 tutorial folder.
You may also download a copy for free via this link: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2877782/AGLC3.pdf
• In general, for written reports, a SafeAssign similarity percentage of 25% or below is acceptable. Regardless of the similarity figure, all group reports must use in-text citation and observe proper referencing rules.
• All assignments are expected to strictly follow Holmes Institute’s Academic Conduct and Integrity Policy and Procedures. A copy of the Policy is available on the Holmes Institute home page. (About Holmes Policies) This policy is also explained in your Student Handbook.
• Plagiarism and contract cheating in any form will not be tolerated and will have severe consequences for the groups found committing the same, including receiving zero (0) for the entire assignment and possible failure in the unit.
• Any group assignment that is found to contain fake or bogus references or references that are clearly irrelevant to the subject matter of the assignment will receive an automatic zero (0) mark.
• IMPORTANT: Identification of individual work. To ensure that all students participate equitably in the group assignment and that students are responsible for the academic integrity of all components of the assignment, each group must complete the following table which identifies which student/students are responsible for the various sections of the assignment:
Assignment section Student/Students
This table needs to be completed and submitted with the assignment as it is a compulsory component required before any grading is undertaken.
Marking criteria Weighting (%)
Group Report
- Identification of material facts involved in problem question 6%
- Identification of legal issues / legal question and relevant law 8%
- Thorough yet succinct application of law to material facts 8%
- Citation and referencing 4%
- Professional quality 4%
TOTAL Weight 30%
Assignment Questions
Part A: Contracts Law Question
• Read the Contracts Law question below.
• In 1,000 words (+/- 10% is allowed), answer your chosen question using the IRAC method.
• Your answer must be supported by relevant law and cases decided by Australian courts (preferably the High Court) and/or scholarly articles. A minimum of 3 genuine and relevant references are required for this part of the report.
• Your references must be listed in a Reference list at the end of the Part A question.
Joey Joystick is a computer programmer. While he was in his final year of university studies, he worked as an intern with a local electronic games producer, Great Games Pty Ltd. Joey impressed his supervisors with his insightful comments and other input on design work. They were so impressed with his work on one design, Crypt Force, that they gave him part credit for it and paid him a general bonus for it. Crypt Force ultimately won an industry award and proved to be a big seller for the company.
After Joey’s university graduation ceremony, he was ushered aside by a Great Games executive who showed him a document and said:
“We’re very impressed by your work, Joey. We’d like you to join us permanently— we’re sure you’ll be happy with the deal we can offer you.”
The document was a contract of employment which contained the following clauses:
1. The duration of the contract is three (3) years.
9. The employee (Joey) agrees that he will not for the duration of the employment contract or for a period of one year after the conclusion of the employment undertake design activities in Australia for the purposes of the production of electronic games or any other form of entertainment.
The starting salary under the contract was that normally paid to a senior designer, which was a position a new designer would not usually attain until he or she had worked with Great Games for three years. Joey happily signed the agreement.
After two years with Great Games, Joey was approached by a film production company, Computer Animated Films Inc (CAN). Joey agreed with CAN that, for a salary five times what he was getting paid by Great Games, he would immediately start work as part of a team producing Cosmic Armada, a feature-length computer animated film. As part of the deal, Joey would also work on a spin-off Cosmic Armada electronic game.
Advise Great Games whether it can prevent Joey from working for CAN.
In answering this question, you are expected to draw on legal rules, principles and cases discussed in the lectures from Weeks 1 to 4 and the corresponding chapters from the prescribed textbook.
Part B: Business Structures question
• Read the questions below on Business Structures.
• In 1,000 words (+/- 10% is allowed), answer the chosen given question.
• A minimum of 3 genuine and relevant references are required for this part of the report. Examples of relevant references for this question include the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth); the Australian and Securities and Investment Commission’s (ASIC) website (www.asic.gov.au), the website of the Australian Business Register’s (ABR) website (www.abr.gov.au).
• Your references must be listed in a Reference list at the end of the Part B question.
You have graduated from Holmes Institute with a Master’s Degree in Professional Accounting, and you’re employed as an accountant/financial advisor, for an accounting firm called Big Business Accountants.
Harry is a client, and he has made an appointment to see you. Harry is keen in starting a business. This business he is proposing to start is a bakery. Harry has qualifications in bakery which includes making cakes, bread, pastries.
Harry, has saved up his money and he has about $50,000.00 in cash. He hasn’t bought any equipment but he has found a shop which he is considering leasing where his bakery business will be operating from.
Harry has always been an employee and now he would like to know what type of business structure he should have for his bakery.
Your task is to write a report to Harry about the types of business structures that you consider would be suitable for Harry to consider.
Marking Rubric
Group Report
Total marks available: 15 marks Excellent
Good
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Identification of material facts involved in problem question
(6 marks) 5.5 to 6 marks
Completely
identifies all relevant facts of case 4.5 to 5.5 marks
Identifies most of the relevant facts of case 3 to 4 marks
Identifies the basic relevant facts of the case but misses other relevant facts Below 3 marks
Does not identify relevant facts of case
Identification of legal issues / legal question and
relevant law
(8 marks) 7.5 to 8 marks
Correctly identifies all relevant legal issues and are stated in the form of questions.
Correctly identifies relevant and appropriate legal rules and case law, and states them in the form of statements 6 to 7 marks
Issues correctly identified, but may contain extraneous information and are not stated in the form of questions.
Legal rules and case law correctly identified, but may contain extraneous info and are not in the form of statements. 4 to 5.5 marks
Issues are not completely identified.
Legal rules and case law not correctly identified. Below 4 marks
Identifies incorrect or irrelevant issues.
Identifies incorrect or irrelevant legal rules and case law.
Thorough yet succinct application of law to material
facts
(8 marks) 7.5 to 8 marks
Correctly identifies facts; wellreasoned discussion relating facts to the rules and case law. 6 to 7 marks
Correctly identifies facts. Not well reasoned. 4 to 5.5 marks
Facts not correctly identified. Analysis incoherent. Below 4 marks
Scant to no analysis.
Citation and referencing
(including minimum number of
references)
(4 marks) 3.75 to 4 marks
Correctly cites minimum of 6 references, in-text and in reference list. 3 to 3.5 marks
Has minimum of 6 references; or has occasional errors in formatting of in-text citations and reference list 2.5 to 2.75 marks
Does not have minimum of 6 references or contains errors in formatting of intext citations and reference list Below 2 marks
No referencing either in-text or in reference
list; or cites
inappropriate references; or all references not cited in the correct format.
Professional quality including language use and writing
style
(4 marks)
3.75 to 4 marks
Professional language. No grammatical, punctuation or spelling errors. 3 to 3.5 marks
Some mistakes. Does not detract from understanding. 2.5 to 2.75 marks
Many mistakes. Detracts from understanding.
Sloppy. Below 2 marks
Reflects no real effort.
Deductions
Excess word count (1 mark for every 25 words over)
Under the word limit (1 mark for every 25 word under)
Lacks minimum of 6 references (1 mark for every missing reference)