The World Business

After 21 years of teaching, both in private college and law school, and as a 23-year legal practitioner, licensed in Hawaii and New York, I perhaps have too much technical knowledge of the law to pass judgment on a text meant clearly to cover, in an almost glib and obsessively-current fashion, virtually the entire spectrum of the law.

That being said, the text is useful in plowing through the sometimes grandiloquent excesses of law terms and concepts in mostly plain English. Its major flaw is trying to accomplish too much with too little. The multitudinous case decisions are often so short as to reveal little of the policy reasoning behind the law, certainly a key to a would-be manager or businessman. Concepts, when explained, are often truncated, leaving students somewhat bewildered. Coverage of products liability is a case in point — the question constantly arises: why hold a manufacturer liable without fault? There are correct answers given, to be sure, but they are not fully explained and college students often tend to look at fault rather than economic analysis when a product injures a consumer; the economic concept of strict products liability is hardly an intuitive one, but it is crucial to those students who enter into products manufacture and distribution.

One also wonders why the constitution, criminal law, torts, and such are placed in a business law text. They have minimal relation to the real-world of business and there is just too much information already, even for 2 terms, to cover adequately. I would exclude or minimize these kinds of topics.

Properly the authors have cut back on certain areas which in prior editions constititued perhaps 5+ chapters each. But this is the flip side of the coin. The book is at once too much and too little. At least in our college, this text is used for a course in business law for managers. I’m afraid it is not quite that. Managers need to know what to do when a legal problem, from sexual harassment allegations to a regulatory complaint, comes before them. There is precious little “how” to the practical question of “what do I do now?”. In fact, there should be answers to that practical question in every chapter.

There are far too many federal trial court opinions which, frankly, are so new and of so little legal weight (binding only in the particular district), that I wonder why they are included at all in text form, when they can be footnoted, if cited at all. Internet law and “cyberlaw” are cases in point. I realize this is an emerging area in the law, but precisely for that reason, these cases largely have no business being placed in text form until appellate courts have given us broader guidance.

Perhaps I have been too harsh on the text. It is well-written, understandable, generally clear to the college student, and may well be the best general text for undergraduates. But I would like to see much more progress made in the areas I have discussed.
Rating: 3 / 5

West’s Business Law is amazing for the student of business law. It presents complicated subject matter in a way that can be understood. After reading it, I felt “everyone should read this book,” because it applies to so many situations we could face in everyday life. It provides a more in-depth and overall law presentation than most college text books. If you hunger for knowledge of the law (whether you want to be a lawyer or not), you will be filled by the material in West’s Business Law. My husband has a business law class right now which uses another textbook and there is no comparison. I only regret that I lost my West’s Business Law when I was moving, because it is one textbook I had wanted to keep forever.
Rating: 5 / 5

I have been through a few bad and good text books throughout my college career, but this had to be one of the best I ever picked up. It is easy to search through and actually makes the topics interesting to read.
Rating: 5 / 5