Take My Liberty BUSI 301 Class

Liberty's catalog opens with the observation that headlines are full of organizations in crisis after legal and ethical failures. BUSI 301 introduces the American legal system in a business setting, the key precedents and laws affecting people and organizations, and diverse ethical perspectives examined from a biblical point of view, with attention to the virtue and character a thriving marketplace needs.

Melvin's early chapters cover legal foundations, ethics, the courts, litigation and dispute resolution and constitutional limits on government. The middle chapters cover contracts, sales, torts and product liability, agency and employment. The later chapters move to business entities, securities, intellectual property, criminal law, property, the environment, consumer protection and international business.

Grudem's short book argues that ownership, profit, money, competition and borrowing can each glorify God or be misused, and it frames the course's ethical discussion.

Forum 1's thread falls in week one and its replies in week two; Forum 2 runs across weeks three and four; Forum 3 across weeks six and seven.

Quizzes worth 100 points come in weeks two, three and six. Connect homework worth 15 points comes every week.

The Book Review is due in week five and the Business Plan Paper in week eight.

Points divide almost evenly between writing and testing: 580 for forums and papers, 420 for quizzes and Connect, plus 10 for the checklist.

This class is taken with two lenses at once, the legal and the ethical, because most prompts ask for both. A forum on employment law, for example, might explain at-will employment and its exceptions, then ask what Grudem's view of work and fairness would say about firing an employee who reports a safety problem.

Each thread gives the rule, applies it, concludes, then weighs the ethics, drawing on Melvin, Grudem and Scripture as asked.

Replies follow in the next week, written after classmates post, and test their analysis against a different fact or a counterargument.

The Book Review summarizes Grudem's argument chapter by chapter in brief, evaluates its strengths and limits and applies it to a real business decision, at the length and format your section sets.

The Business Plan Paper is built to your section's brief. Where it asks you to plan a business and address its legal and ethical setup, the paper covers entity choice, contracts, employment, intellectual property and regulation, with an ethical framework running through.

Connect homework and quizzes are yours, along with the registration quiz.

Written items come early enough to read before you submit.

BUSI 301 goes to a writer with legal training, such as a paralegal certificate, a law degree or a compliance background, who has worked with contracts, employment issues or regulation inside companies.

Legal accuracy is the first requirement. Writers distinguish between torts and crimes, void and voidable contracts, employees and independent contractors, and they apply the rules the way the textbook presents them.

The ethics side is handled by writers familiar with Christian thought on business and comfortable discussing Grudem's argument fairly, including where readers might push back.

A second reviewer checks every legal statement and citation.

Nothing in the work is legal advice for your own situation; it is analysis for the course.

Your identity stays with the coordinator.

If a rule confuses you before a quiz, such as the elements of negligence, a short plain explanation can come back.

Reading volume comes first. Three or four law chapters a week plus a parallel book leaves little time for anything else.

Legal reasoning is the second hurdle. Forums reward the habit of stating a rule, applying it to facts and reaching a conclusion, and many students instead give an opinion about fairness.

The quizzes are large, 100 points each, and cover several chapters of terms and cases at a time.

Integrating faith is the fourth difficulty. Prompts ask for biblical reasoning alongside legal analysis, and quoting a verse without connecting it to the business question earns little.

The business plan paper arrives in the final week, when the reading is still heavy, and it draws on law from across the whole course.

Students outside business often find contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code the most unfamiliar material.

The two-week forum cycle also catches students who forget the replies.

Handed over before the start, the class opens with the Forum 1 thread ready to post.

Threads arrive two or three days before their windows; replies follow once classmates post in the next week.

The Book Review arrives about four days before week five closes, and the Business Plan Paper about five days before week eight closes.

Each thread, reply set and paper has its own line on the quote; nothing tested appears there.

Starting in week three or four is common; the writer reviews your posted work and picks up from there.

The two papers carry 280 points between them, so they are the items most often ordered first.

Students who enjoy the reading often keep the forums and hand over just the papers.